Ego
by RadonMax
Summary: Things usually don't go as planed. Yggdrasil thought as he fought side by side with Lloyd's group. The cruxis leader never expected that he would become one of his strongest allies. This isn't your usual SI as Lloyd and Yggdrasil face their new foe. Me.
1. Talim

Max: Hello and welcome to my first story.  
Mathew: That you had the guts to publish.  
Max:Shut it!  
Mathew: Thought so.  
Mike: Will you two stop bickering it's annoying.  
Max Mathew:(look at each other) No.  
Mike: sigh..  
Mathew: So why a self insert?  
Max: Well I wanted to do something that was unique. And since I haven't really read one about becoming a villain I thought why not fill that niche.  
Mathew: Good enough.

Mike: Please excuse the grammar

Mike: RadonMax dose not own Tales of Symphonia it is owned by Namco/Bandai

Max: For the purpose of my sanity. If there are any similarities to any other story it is sheer coincidence. I have no intention of reproducing other people's work.

* * *

'This is _not_ good' Lloyd thought as he stood next to Yggdrasil. The pair standing in front of an awe inspiring army. A vast amount of machines, monsters, and a mixed version of both, organized into large military formations. With the twelve generals, in glistening armor riding dragon-like creatures, leading each front.

"So you've finally arrived" I spoke standing on a large spire with 6 swords orbiting around me in a large circular pattern, none of the swords seemed special until the eternal sword is noticed in the formation.

"You will return this world back to the way it was." Lloyd shouted from his position. "And give me back my sister!" Yggdrasil demanded.

I couldn't help but laugh. "Ha ha ha foolish sentiments. Why should I return this world to the twisted way it was? And why would i give back one of my top generals?" At this Yggdrasil was stunned. I reached out and grabbed the eternal sword and felt my self be divide into 5 replicas. Each one grabbed one of the other swords and charged towards them with my army following in a stampede. I brought my sword down cutting one of the desians cleanly in half and rushed to my next target, Lloyd. Our swords met in a flash of sparks ending in a stalemate. "Your skills have improved quite a bit, young Aurion. But why are you not using the abilities that I gave you?"

But I'm getting ahead of my self . Five clones look up from their assorted books and wave.

Why was I attacking Lloyd and Mithos? And why did I twist the world into it's current shape? At first we started out as good friends and I just wanted to return home, but power corrupts even the pure.

* * *

I was at home working on one of my latest ideas typing it up on my computer and saving it into my "if I ever go insane" folder.

The idea was simple it was a theory on the balance of 3. One example is that there is a mediating force between two forces that would negate each other. One of those mediating forces, I theorized, was the human soul. But enough of my crazy ideas.

As I saved the file, something nudged my arm, giving a small smile as I scratched my elder dog behind his ear. He looked at me with sad eyes, the kind of look that says good bye and I will probably never see you again. Giving the dog an odd look as I got up and got out the dog food and refilled his bowls with water and food.

Looking out my window something sparkled in the corner of my eye. Turning my head i ended up spotting a strange looking object sticking out of the ground.

"What the?" Leaving the house to investigate the object getting closer I noticed it was a silver-blue sword.

Picking it up I felt it pulse with energy and a voice echoed through my mind '_You will be my new master. Do not disappoint me_.'

When the voice faded my head started to throb with the feeling of vertigo as I felt my body go limp. I awoke feeling that the ground around me had become barren rock, the air was stagnant and filled with the scent of decay, and the sky was a dark ebony mist.

"Wa-where am I?"

'_You are in my soul_.'

"Your soul? What am I doing here?"

'_I need help with the restoration my power. My last master had left this place as you see before you._'

"What a waste. But what can i do to change this place?"

'_That is for you to find out._'

Eventually after wandering around I figured out how to terraform the strange space where I found my self by simply polishing the sword's blade. After spending some more time wandering around, with my new sword in hand, I found that this place was on a large floating rock in the middle of a dark void.

"Now how do I return home. It feels like I have been here for days."

'_This is your home._' a different voice echoed in my mind albeit strangely familiar and somewhat cold. '_Just open your eyes you idiot_.'

"What the?" opening my eyes I realized this was still in my yard, and I was holding a now polished sword in front of me and my dogs staring at me from behind the sliding glass door. Looking up into the sky that it was late at night. "why do i have a feeling this wont end well" sighing I went into the house with my new sword placed it on my counter onto of a folded towel, and went to sleep.

The next day i noticed that my computer was on and my "if i ever go insane" folder was opened as were several files.

"Quite an interesting mind you have." a feminine voice said. I looked up and saw a beautiful woman, she stood in my door way as I stared at her dark sapphire eyes that would leave a man with a feeling of being examined. Her dark blue hair seemed to flow down her back and stopped at her waist. She was roughly about 5'9 and had a lightly tanned 'gifted' athletic body.

"Who are you and what are you doing in my house?"

She looked at me with a cocked eyebrow "You brought me in last night if you remember."

"The only thing i brought.." click "ah... great i came across one of those mystical type sword." She smiled at me as I tried to avert my gaze and to distract my self from staring at the naked sword spirit. "By the way you never told me your name."

She looked confused "It has been far too long and in that time I have forgotten my name."

"Then I should give you a new name. Hmm... how about Talim? It roughly means edge in my language."

She seemed to think about it for a second and nodded "That is a very nice name I like it."

"By the way I noticed that your edge has been dulled past the point of being able to cut, so I decided that you should at least be sharpened. Are you still on the towel I left you on?" she nodded again "Ok after I eat something I'll begin work resharpening you."

I was glad it was the weekend as I had time to work on the sword and my experience sharpening knives would help as well. After eating a quick breakfast I grabbed my water stone from under the sink and began working on her. After some time the blade seemed to sing as I moved it across the surface of the stone. As I finished the sword seemed to hum as I placed it back onto the towel.

"All I need now is a sheath, but where in this small town will I find one?" as I wrapped the towel around the sword for protection it stiffed and slowly transformed into the shape of a sheath and fits snugly on the weapon.

"Well that was convenient." removing the sword from it's new sheath it started to hum and I felt part of myself seem to resonate with it.

"You are indeed my master." Talim said as she descended the stairs now fully clothed in what appears to be blue-silver armor.

"Why do you say that?"

"Simple. It's because my true form is resonating with your soul. You may be the first to truly be able to access my powers."

"Depending on what it is. I probably wont try to use it."

"Why?"

"I know that messing with cretin things in the world can lead to some disastrous effects." sighing "So have you finished reading all the things on my computer? I find it surprising that you know how to use one." she smirked at me while turning around and headed back upstairs as I heard her respond.

"It's simple to learn new things if your master is already knowledgeable about it." Great she read my mind while I sleep...

Things became eerily quiet as a large explosion is heard outside. Suddenly with the realization of what might happen to me because I found the sword. I froze and and whispered "And now it begins."

* * *

Please leave some advice to help me improve. Thank you.


	2. Welcome to Sylvarant

Max: Welcome to chapter two.

Mathew: That's rather fast especially for you.

Max: What's that suppose to mean?

Mathew: Usually it takes you some time to do something, if anything at all.

Max: Are you saying I'm lazy?

Mathew: Yes. Yes I am.

Max: WHY YOU-!

Mike: Now now calm down Max. You know he just likes to mess with you. Mathew say the disclaimer.

Max: grumbles

Mathew: RadonMax does not own Tales of Symphonia.

* * *

"Talim!" I shouted as I ran upstairs, with her sword form in my hand. When I got to my room I found the spirit, now clothed, staring out the window towards a plume of smoke, off in the distance. I was about to ask what happened when a loud roar echoed through the town. I immediately ran to my computer and started typing commands. The screen changed to several security camera feeds. One of the camera angels was just static, as others were showing different parts of town. I had accessed the local news station traffic cameras and readjusted the cameras to show where the smoke had originated from. a crater could be seen at the edge of town. As soon as the camera came into focus as a gigantic metal 'thing' emerged and started to lumber towards town.

"What in the world is that?" I said as I changed the camera angels.

_'That's a living bomb. It is a creature that was once an inanimate object, that somehow was brought to life. It just wanders around until it explodes.'_

"WHAT? We have to tell the police before it destroys a part of the town!" I say as I pick up the phone and dial the local police. "Damn. The network is overloaded."

_'They probably wouldn't know what to do. Plus there is a chance that they would just set off the bomb instead of rendering it useless. I can easily disarm the creature by cutting the cable running from the back of it's head, but I need an able body to wield me in combat.'_

I wasn't really thinking as I grabbed Talim and ran out the door. "I'll do it." I said as i ran down several blocks, passing houses, buildings, and a parks. I eventually ended up face to face with the monster. As I drew Talim's sword form, I realized what I had just done. In an instant I was overwhelmed with dread and confusion "What the _hell_ am I doing?"

_'Don't worry. Like I said I just need an able body." _I felt some force enter me from the sword. Then my body moved into a basic battle stance, like I was being possessed. My body tried to sneak to the creature but I stepped on something and made a noise. This had gotten the creature's attention and it lunged at me as I jumped into the air. I gracefuly landed on it's partially formed arm. This was soon folowed by me running up it's arm. While I was running small part of me ,that wasn't panicking at the uncontrolled movements, was thinking 'This is really cool!' I eventually landed on it's back and sliced through the cable.

'_There that should do it'_ Talim said as the creature bucked and thew me off it's back. Since I wasn't ready, I landed on the cement injuring my right leg. I heard a noise from behind me and saw a second one approaching, in it's lumbering manner. There was a beeping sound coming from the creature.

_'_Shit! It's about to detonate!' I thought. The creature started emit a red light. Since my leg was injured, I couldn't run. '_There's no time!' _I heard Talim say as I felt my body try to stand. I cried out in pain as my body stood up, due to my injured leg. Griping the sword I heard, in my own voice, an incantation.

"Ancient blade of the traveler's lore, bend to my will and prepare a path for escape!" With the sword in my two hand I gave a large vertical slash. Where the blade had sliced through the air seemed to darken and form a void. The void grew in size and started to pull the creature in. I sighed in relief as the creature was absorbed halfway into the void. I suddenly cried out in pain as the creature grabbed my injured leg and pulled me with it into the void.

* * *

Darkness surrounded me. It was cold, unwelcoming, and lonely. The dark space gave me a strange feeling. I had a feeling of weightlessness and being submerged in a thick solution. Then it changed to a crushing gravity. My body warped feeling like I was gaining tons of weight in an instant. Then it felt like I was being torn apart. If it wasn't for the crushing pain in my leg, I would have been intrigued by this space. A bright light suddenly binded me as I felt my body return to normal. I noticed that I was falling. Let me tell you something, when you land on the ground from a fair distance. It hurts. A lot. Especially when you land on a large metallic creature. Luckily the impact released it's grip from my leg. A deafening roar signaled that the beast was still alive. I tumbled off of it onto the sandy field. The creature was stuck in the middle of it's detonation sequence tried to continue, but the device that controlled it was damaged, and started to thrash uncontrollably. The bomb charged at me as there was a loud clang as the creature fell to the ground missing a leg. I struggled to sit up and peer behind the creature to see a man with auburn hair clad in a purple outfit.

"Are you alright?" some one asked coming from behind me. I looked back to face a young blond girl wearing a white dress and dark pants, she looks to be in her teens. A woman with white hair, that wore an orange cloak, accompanied her. She looked like she was in mid twenties. 'They seem oddly familiar.' I thought to myself. There was another loud sound as the creature collapsed onto the ground to never move again.

"Y-yeah th-thanks." was all I could say at the moment letting the shock settle in. When I tried to sit up, the pain in my leg shot through my entire system. This caused me to colapse back onto the ground.

"Here let me heal you." the white haired woman said as she approached me. She placed her hand on my leg and did a quick examination "You were lucky. You only have a sprained ankle, a spiral fracture and a few torn muscles."

'That's Lucky? That's going to take at least three months to heal!' I thought to myself. A dull green glow covered her hand as my leg also started to glow green. The pain lessened and I could feel the injuries heal as the glow subsided. "Thank you. How did you do that?" I said completely intrigued by what occurred before me.

"Your welcome. You were rather fortunate since you could have lost your leg, due to those injuries. Being an elf allows me to use mana to heal your wounds." She said as she examined me for other injuries.

"I see... AN ELF!" I had thought that elves only existed in mythology and in fiction. But there was one standing right in front of me. One that healed my wounds.

"What? Is there a problem with me being an elf?" the look on her face frightened me.

"N-no it's not that. I just read a lot of stories about your kind and I've just never seen an elf first hand before." raising my hands in defense.

"I see. If you don't mind me asking. What are you doing out here in the middle of the desert dressed like that?" She asked

I simply pointed to the dead monster. "That thing attacked me and dragged me here."

"If your done healing him I would like for us to continue. I would be hoping we will arrive in Triet before dark." The monotone voice of the purple clad swordsman had reminded me of someone. But who?

"Before you go. Do you mind telling me where I am? I'm kinda lost."

"We are just north of Triet. About a half days walk." the elven women pointed south.

"Thank you. Hmm Triet... that's a nice name for a town. Oh! I haven't properly introduced my self. My name is Max Viola. It is nice to meet you miss.. um"

The blond child responded first "My name is Collette. The one healing you is Professor Raine. And the man with the sword is my guard Mr. Kratos"

"I am honored to meet you. If you don't mind me asking why does a child like you have a gua-"

"Chosen I believe we should get moving if we are to reach Triet before dark." I was rudely interrupted by Kratos seeing that he was loosing the last of his patience.

"Oh okay.." she seemed disheartened by his remark.

"If you don't mind. Would it be possible if I were to accompany you until we arrive in Triet? As you can tell I'm not ready for solo travel." I said looking down at my pajamas which consisted of a yellow shirt and purple pants.

"Of course." Collette chirped a smile returning to her face. Kratos and Raine seemed to resist just a bit, but a look from Collette and they submitted. "Do as you wish." was all Collette's guard said.

So I joined their group, wearing my pajamas. We had started our little excursion towards Triet and ran into a couple of monsters. The first time I saw a scorpion the size of a small dog I panicked* as it approached me. I quickly grabbed Talim and got into stance. Before I knew what I was doing I had sliced the air before me, and wave of energy shot out from the space where I had cut into. The wave of energy raced through the air sliced the scorpion in two. That attack caught everyone by surprise especially me.

'_Are you alright master?' _Talim asked in a groggy voice._  
_

'Talim what did I just do?' I was hoping that she could read my mind. Turns out I was right.

_'It was a technique called cutting edge. I am surprised that you could already use it'_

'So am I. I'm guessing if you can learn from me I can learn from you. By the way do you know how I ended up in this world? I don't feel like I'm on earth anymore. And where were you earlier?'

Before she could answer me Collette came up to me and started asking questions. "How did you do that? Where did you get your sword from? What does the inscription on your sword say? It looks elven. Do you have any elven blood in you? Do you have a dog? Etc.." When she was asking questions I had pinched the bridge of my nose in minor annoyance, and by the time she had stopped asking questions I had found a rock, in the middle of the desert, and started bashing my head into it. Eventually that made me forget that Talim was going to respond to my questions. Professor Raine healed my wounds after telling Collette that she was asking too many questions and not giving me enough time to answer. We had arrived in Triet sometime in the afternoon. We had said our goodbyes as we went our separate ways.

I had realized in the middle of my journey to Triet that I didn't have any of the local currency. Being one who like to be prepared for life and it's surprises, I had scavenged some remains from my kills with the group and had brought it with me to one of the vendors. Selling my spoils gave me about 500 gald.

"Wait... gald?" something in my memory was starting to click together "hm Collette... Professor Raine... ... Why do they seem familiar."

I pushed the thought to the back of my mind as I focused on what I needed, clothing. I had gotten to the local tailor and gotten my self some new clothing and a bag. I had gotten my self some black fingerless gloves, simple traveler's boots, a dark green short sleeved tunic, and simple brown pants. When I was leaving the store a hooded cloak had caught my attention. Without a second thought I had purchased it and put it on.

As I left the store I spied Collette, Raine, and Kratos talking with a man. I waved at them and as Collette waved back, she tripped and somehow fell through a wall... I ran over to check if she was alright. Strangely enough she didn't even have a scratch on her. After some quick chatting with them, Kratos had convinced me to purchase some armor.

I glanced over the items. After some time I settled on a leather guard and some gauntlets. It had gotten dark, by the time I finished my shopping, so I had taken what was left of my money and purchased a room at the inn. When I opened the door to my room I threw my bag on the floor, next to my bed. I changed back into my pajamas and dropped into the bed instantly falling asleep.

* * *

* Mathew: when you say "panicked" don't you mean you screamed like a girl?

Max: N-no! It surprised me!

Mathew: Right... Really impressive for a future villain.

Max: (punches Mathew in the gut) How's that then?

Mathew: (scoffs from the punch ) Kinda pathetic.

Max: THAT'S IT! (pulls out a steel sword)

Mathew: Bring It weakling! (pulls out a black metal sword)

Mike: Uh, while I go and stop those two please leave a review. (Bows and turns towards the two fighters and draws out twin crystalline swords) Don't Make Me Bring Out The Peace Maker!


	3. Now what?

Max: Chapter Three!

Mathew: RadonMax does not own tales of symphonia. He wishes he did.

Mike: If there are grammar errors please excuse them. It is not our strong suit.

* * *

"WHAT! ?" The Triet inn was rudely awakened by some one yelling. Namely me.

'_Master please calm down.'_

"How can I calm down I'm-!" I tried to yell but when I opened my mouth nothing came out.

_'Master you are waking up the rest of the people in the inn.'_

'WHAT HAPPENED TO MY VOICE_!'_

_'I had to silence you, so you wouldn't disturb the other people who are still sleeping.'_

Taking several deep breaths, I had managed to calm down.

* * *

Lets recap.

I had woken up sitting in a marble throne adorned with indigo cloth. A women with green hair with crimson armor approached.

"You called My lord?"

"Ah Martel just in time. I need you to take care of some of the resistance. One of the leaders is your brother Mithos. Do you have any objections?"

"It shall be taken care of."

I raised my eyebrow "You have no objections of attacking your own brother?"

"He may be my brother but after watching him make countless lives suffer for a failed attempt to revive me. He needs to be punished." She said with such finality I smirked. Before she left, the world faded to black as I woke up from my dream.

"That was a weird dream... Who is Martel?"

'_Master your awake'_

'Oh good morning Talim'

_'Shall we continue the conversation we had from yesterday before Collette interrupted us?'_

'I believe you were about to tell me about earth.'

_'Your not on earth anymore. Your on a planet call Sylvarant.'_

'Why does that sound familiar. How did I get here anyways?'

_'That spell that I made you use, created a gateway to this world.'_

'So I can use the spell to return?'

_'I'm not sure'_

'lets give it a try' "Ancient blade of the traveler's lore, bend to my will and prepare a path for escape!" I slashed the air in front of me, and like before the same dimensional warp appeared. Just as I was about to step into the portal a large washtub flew out and landed on my head. Immediately after it came out the portal shut. I got up rubbing my head. "What was that?"

'_I think it was a washtub'_

"OK lets try again." after a half hour of trying, and filling my room with garbage, I had given up.

_'I think it might be a one way spell'_

* * *

'OK so I'm trapped on an alien world. What else can go wrong.'

'_You could get killed'_

'Your not helping. And can you unmute me now?' sighing as I ran my hand through my disheveled black hair. I feel my voice return to me as the inn keeper knocks on my door.

"Sir is everything all right? I heard some noises."

"Yes everything is fine. I just was getting some stuff from my bag, and it spilled"

"OK sir" I sighed even more as the inn keeper left.

'Talim what can you tell me about this world?'

_'I don't know much besides the name. Looking around the town, left me with the impression that they do not have any form of advanced technology.'_

'hm' my train of thought was interrupted by my growling stomach.

"I guess I should go find some food" I quickly dressed my self, stepped around the junk I accidentally summoned, and left my room with my bag and Talim in hand. I had left the inn after a breakfast that consisted of water, fruits, bread, and dried meats. I had brought an apple with me for a snack later on. After some wandering around town Talim and I finally got back to 'talking'.

'So I'm trapped in this world, where ever it is, and the technology is that of the middle ages.'

'_Don't forget about the monsters that wander the globe. Remember the scorpions?'_

'How could I forget.'

_'It doesn't look like any vendors here sell guns of any kind. You might have to learn to defend your self using me.'_

'Would it be possible for you to teach me then?'

'_Of course. Go back to the inn and I'll get a quick lesson in.' _

As we headed back to the inn, I had immediately run into several people in red uniform armor. Upon seeing me they came over with a sheet of paper. "You. Have you seen this person? He is wanted by the desians if you see him report immediately to any desian." I just nodded. I had been distracted by a large white and green animal, obscuring the view of two people, that had walked into town. How the desians didn't notice, I have no idea. I headed back to my room for some training. How she was going to train me, I didn't have a clue. I'm rather clueless right now.

'OK_ master sit on the bed with your legs crossed, with me on your lap'_

_'_Don't take out of context. Don't take out of context.' I repeated to my self as I did what she instructed.

_'Now close your eyes and let me begin'_

When I had closed my eyes, the familiar sense of vertigo came and went. I opened my eyes so I could see what had happened that made the vertigo feeling. I had found myself in the middle of a grassy plain with a few small buildings off in the distance. "Where am I now?"

"We are back in my soul." Talim appeared behind me with a copy of her sword form in hand.

"So this is where I will be learning how to use a sword?" I stand holding my copy of Talim's sword form.

"Lets begin." what had started as a simple lesson quickly escalated into a battle with me trying to attack her, and her correcting my moves. It must have been hours that I was there and I had noted that I wasn't feeling the fatigue of normal movements. Not to mention that I wasn't even tired from attacking.

"Talim can you tell my why I'm not feeling tired?" I quickly asked as I tried to strike her.

"Thats a simple answer. This is the training field of the mind and soul. The only reason you would feel fatigue is when your body is reaching it's limit. But you are not in your body right now. All I am doing is teaching you the techniques to practice. Your body will need it's own training outside of here." She said with a smirk. I didn't like that smirk. In the next moment I found out why she was smirking. Having gotten tired of blocking and dodging attacks, she parried my attack and stabbed me in the gut!

"Gah!" When she withdrew the blade I quickly inspected the area where she had stabbed me. Looking over it several times there wasn't a hole in either my clothing or myself.

"What just happened?" I was still panicking obvious in my voice.

"Calm down master. Since we are in my soul there can be damage done but you will not be harmed." She made her point by stabbing my arm. Where she impaled my arm, the area had gone numb, but there was no notable damage done. "You are now going to be practicing defense." After several hours of me getting stabbed, cut, and dismembered, she decided it was good for today and returned me back to my body. When I opened my eyes again I was in my room, still in my crossed leg position with Talim on my lap, and about only an hour had passed.

"How is it that only an hour passed? It was almost a day in there!"

'_I believe you covered it in one of your files. I believe it's file 32.'_

'Oh that makes sense Time desynchronization... I should walk around. Sitting like that made my legs go to sleep.' leaving the inn I saw the group of uniformed desians gang up on a couple of children one waring red and the other blue.

I was impressed as the kids had taken out the group of desians. I made the stupid decision to go up to them. I saw some guards sneak up behind them and raised a weapon at them. "Look Out!" I shouted as I shoved the kid in red out of the way, from reflex, as soon he was out of the way I saw a blue orb hit me. I could feel electricity course through my body as I heard Talim cry out to me before everything went black.

Waking up in a jail cell is not a good way to wake up at all. Still groggy I could tell that there were two guards talking with each other.

"I feel sorry for that guy and Lloyd kid."

"Yeah. They cant possibly escape execution." At the word 'execution' I instantly sat up.

'This is not good!' I thought to my self I reached to my side only to find that my bag and equipment gone.

"Execution? ! What the hell?" I heard come from the cell next to mine.

I heard some more sounds and by the looks of things a third guy came in. "Hey, Lord Botta's calling you."

"Got it."

There were some more sounds. 'I think it's a guard change, nows my chance!'

'_Master where are you?'_

'I'm in one of the jail cells. There is a guard out there. Where are you?'

'_They tossed me into a box with a bunch of equipment and medicine.'_

'Can you get out? I need a little help out here.' hooray for telepathic communication.

"Hey guard!" time to start my plan.

"What do you want?"

"what's this I hear about getting executed?"

"Thats not for you to know."

"Really. Just getting a random person off the street and sentencing them to death for no reason. That just doesn't seem right."

"I know what you mean, but GAH~!" The guard had fallen over unconscious, with Talim standing behind him.

"Very nice work." I gave a slight nod.

"Thank you." she gave the control panel, for the jail cell, a quick look over and opened my cell. Not wanting to waste too much time I dragged the unconscious guard into the cell and locked him in. before I locked him in I was thinking of searching through his pockets for anything useful, but quickly changed my mind as I stole his uniform. I heard some noise and looked up ready to draw the blade next to me. It was the kid from earlier.

"I see you got out. Impressive." I said

"Ya thanks for distracting that guard. What was that ghost earlier?" the kid was unusually dressed. He wore a red long slaved jacket with matching boots and gloves, and brown pants with suspenders.

"That ghost you saw earlier was my partner, Talim. My name's Max and what's your name kid?"

"My name's not kid it's Lloyd."

"Nice to meet you. Under different circumstances I'd introduce you to Talim, but we should leave this place as fast as we can." I explained to him who Talim was while putting on the ren-err... desian uniform.

"Your not one of them, are you?" he seemed to get nervous as I put on the helmet.

"Of course not. I'm putting on this uniform to go around unnoticed. If we cant find another uniform for you, you could pretend to be my prisoner."

"I'd rather be a prisoner then put on one of those uniforms."

I chuckled at his arrogance. "If you say so."

We quickly located our equipment and armed our selves.

"Shall we?" I said as I pointed down the hall towards the exit. Lloyd nodded and lead the way. We ran into several guards but they fell for the lie that Lloyd was my prisoner and was moving him to a different location. Our ruse didn't last long. After we went down several hallways the alarms went off and guards were running all over the place. I panicked and shoved Lloyd into a closet.

"What's going on?" Lloyd whispered to me.

"I'll find out. Hey you! What's going on?" I shouted to one of the passing solders.

"The Prisoners escaped and we are hunting them down."

"Any Ideas where they are?" I tried to feign ignorance.

"No. Do you?"

"Lets try looking in sector C." I started to pull locations from my mind, that I had seen wandering around, hopefully getting a good location.

"Why the cafeteria?" he looked at me strangely. I gulped in hoping he still mistook me for one of the other guards.

"You never know." I spoke trying to hide my trembling voice.

"Right." he gave me a nod before running off in the direction which I hoped was the cafeteria.

Lloyd quickly got out of the closet and faced me about to say something but I interrupted him. "Lets run before they find us." We quickly ran down several hallways, passed the giant game cube, ran into a dead end at the empty hanger, and rounded a corner.

"Over there Get Them!" I quickly looked behind me and saw the guards. Lloyd sprinted ahead and entered a room and I quickly followed. Upon entering the room, I noticed that it was a nicely decorated office of some sort. There was a strange feeling in the air as the door shut behind me.

"Phew. That was close." Lloyd said breaking my train of thoughts.

"And just who the hell are you?" I gulped as Lloyd and I slowly turned around to face a blue haired person. "Soldier why did you bring this child here?"

I quickly tried to play the part. "Sir. I found him collapsed in the desert and took pity on him."

Unfortunately Lloyd didn't catch on. "Huh? What are you talking about? We escaped from the jail. Don't you remember?"

I stared at him in disbelief and said "Your not the sharpest knife in the set are you."

"Hey whats that suppose to mean!"

I would have physically smacked my self at this point, if I hadn't noticed the blue haired man collect a sphere of electricity in his hand.

"So your my prisoners that escaped." At this point he noticed a shining object on Lloyd's left hand. "An Exsphere! You're... Lloyd?"

"And if I am?" Lloyd's arrogance was truly astounding to me.

"Hmm. I see the resemblance." at this moment I tried to use my uber sneaking skills to grab Lloyd and run. As the door opened behind me and three people rushed in, one guy wearing a robe and two uniformed guards. At this I backed up.

"Sir. We've received reports that the chosen's group has infiltrated the facility!" the man had a British accent.

Lloyd seemed to recognize him. "You.. You're the desian that attacked Iselia!"

"So you're Lloyd! Now this is amusing." and he recognized Lloyd...

I'm feeling left out...

"Botta! I'm leaving for now. Our plans will be ruined if he sees me." Our blue haired mystery caped man said.

"What of the chosen?"

"I'll leave that to you."

"Understood."

"Lloyd next time we meet, you're mine. Just you wait." With that said he quickly left the room.

Botta and the guards ignored me and started to corner Lloyd. The door opened and three more people entered. I recognized Kratos and Collette, but the kid in blue was the only one I didn't recognize.

"Lloyd! Are you ok?" I now recognized him! He was with Lloyd earlier.

"Are you all right? Are you hurt?" oh no not Collette's questions!

"He looks fine." Thank you Kratos for stopping her.

"You guys all came for me."

'No Lloyd the came for the popcorn' I thought to my self

"Perfect timing. I'll take care of everyone at once!" Botta drew a large red sword as the guards drew theirs.

I drew my sword and shakily got into battle position, as everyone charged at each other. Fearing I would get attacked by people I knew. I quickly slipped behind one of the guards and quickly stabbed him in the neck. This had gotten the attention of several people namely Collette, the kid in blue and one of the guards. Being distracted the other guard was quickly disposed by Kratos. Taking off my helmet, I was hoping that they would recognize me, and to make more of a distraction by throwing it at Botta, it worked. He charged at me and before I could bring Talim up to defend my self he left a large gash in my side. Clutching my wound, I noticed that Botta had moved into a defensive stance as Kratos attacked him relentlessly. There was a bright flash of light as three orbs of fire flew around the room and crashed into Botta, setting some of his clothing ablaze. Several steel rings flew past my head and sliced at Botta's open back as Kratos slashed at his front. Trying to ignore the pain in my side I got up to see if I could rejoin the battle. Just as I got up, Botta fell covered in wounds, burn marks, and his sword had been broken.

"Ugh... I underestimated your abilities." He threw down what was left of his sword and ran out of the room and locked the door. At the same time Raine came in the other door and picked up what was left of the sword.

"Isn't this a..." she was interrupted by Lloyd

"Professor!"

"Ah. Lloyd. Genis told me what happened. I apologize for the trouble he's caused you."

"No. I'm the one that dragged Genis into it. I'm sorry"

At this point Raine noticed me clutching my wound and I decided to say something. "Why is it that every time we meet I'm somewhat injured."

"You know each other?" Ah Lloyd late to the party as usual.

"Save the chitchat for later. We shouldn't stay here long."

"I agree with Kratos. We should go now." I said still clutching my wound.

"You're right. I opened the escape route. Lets go." Raine lead the charge.

When we finally reached the outside the large green and white creature came to greet us.

"Noishe! You came, too?" Lloyd seems to forget that there is still some one injured next him. He seems to remember when I cry out in pain from the wound acting up.

"Here let me take care of that. And I apologize for the trouble my students have caused you." The familiar green glow that Raine casted on me felt comforting, as the wound healed and closed.

"There is nothing to apologize for. I made choices and I will face the results of my actions." 'I wonder if I could learn to do something like that' I thought to my self not expecting Talim to answer me.

_'Yes you can master'_

'Really! Wait wait wait. Lets discuss this later'

_'OK master'_

"Max what are you doing in a desian uniform?" Raine looked at me quizzically.

"Oh this. The only reason I was wearing it was so Lloyd and I could sneak around the base, without being noticed." She nodded her approval as we left the area.

We had started our trek back to Triet when Raine asked Lloyd about the crystal that was embedded in the sword that Botta used. We eventually arrive in Triet everyone was tired so we retreated to the comfort of the inn. I said my good nights to the group and went to my room. I didn't even bother changing out of the desian uniform as I flopped into bed instantly falling asleep.

* * *

Mathew: Why do you end the chapters falling asleep?

Max: It's convenient.

Mathew: Or lazy.

Max: I'm ignoring your now.

Mike: Please leave a review. It keeps us motivated.


	4. Just another day I guess

Mathew: Your late.

Max: I know.

Mike: You should really stop reading so many stories at once.

Max: What do you mean?

Mathew: Lets see. You have six windows open, with at least eight tabs each, and each one has a different story on them.

Max: I...I..I blame ADD!.. Look a squirrel!

Mike: OK now turn off your computer and go to sleep.

Max: NOO! (gripping the computer screen as the other two drag him off)

Mathew: Mike, what's with the syringe?

Mike: RadonMax doesn't own Tales of Symphonia. Please excuse me. (Screaming is heard from the other room. Then silence as Mike exits.)

* * *

SMACK!

"OW! That Hurt!" I shot up and rubbing the side of my face, that now had a large red hand print on it. I instantly noticed that I wasn't in my room, at the triet inn. I was in the middle of Talim's soul field. "So tell me Talim. Why did you bring me here?"

"To continue our discussion on magic." she said with one hand on her hip and the other pointing at me.

"Magic?" I wrinkled my brow as I stood up.

"Yes. As far as I can tell you would be able to use at least three."

"Quick random question." I raised my hand.

"Yes?" she said slightly annoyed that her master interrupted her.

"Would it be possible to pull other people's souls in here?" She smirked. Three hours later... Talim removes her sword from my gut, for the umpteenth time. She had told me that she would answer my question if I was able to land a hit on her. I wasn't going to get an answer anytime soon.

"Now then. Would you like to know what skills you can use?"

I just sighed in defeat. "Yes."

"Good." Talim somehow pulled a large chart from her pocket.

"With your current abilities, you were able to use cutting edge by accident. With proper training you should be able to use it freely." she pointed to different parts of the chart indicating what I would have to focus on. "The magic you should theoretically be able to use would be Douse and cool. With the abundant mana of this world it should be easier for you to master it."

The last part caught me off guard. "Abundant mana?"

"Yes this world has a larger amount of mana then Earth has." She put away her charts as she faced the other direction and snapped her fingers. At this several clay targets appeared and hovered in place. "Douse is an attack where can control a surge of water and use it on your opponent." She held out her arm and aimed at one of the targets. She yelled "Douse" as a torrent of water came out of her hand and destroyed one of the targets. "Cool is an ability that will drastically reduce the temperature around your target and impales it with ice shards." again she held out her harm and shouted "Cool" as the ground froze underneath the target and large ice shards grew and impaled the target. "You already know cutting edge. Even tho it's from instinct. Now you should practice." she snapped her fingers and more targets appeared. "Now practice your abilities."

Before sending me back to my body, she had given me advice on how I would be training my body. She also said that she would help with that as well. I had awoken that morning with every muscle in my body feeling stiff. I finally managed to get up and dressed into my traveling clothing. Before leaving I had decided to look around the pile of what I though was junk, to see if I could find anything useful. I found several things but ended up just taking a black trench coat, some canned food, a can opener, and some random crystals that I thought I could sell for some extra money. When I finally left the inn, everyone was gathered outside of the inn.

"Good morning everyone." I felt delighted to greet them before I trekked off on my own to see what this world held.

"Good morning" Collette chirped "Wish me luck. Today we are going to the fire seal, so I can become an angel."

"An Angel? That's interesting. Do you mind if I join you?" again with a nagging feeling that this was all too familiar.

"With witnessing your current fighting abilities. I do not believe that you will be too much of a burden." I have no idea how Kratos can be subtlety blunt. After convincing Raine, we waited for Lloyd to finally wake up. In the meantime Genis, Raine, and I had started a conversation.

"So, if you don't mind me asking, how long have you known Lloyd?"

"We met him when we first moved into the village. He befriended Genis rather fast. Although his social skills are admirable, his basic knowledge is lacking."

"So, your saying that he has some sort of learning disorder?" When I mentioned this, in the corner of my eye, I noticed that Kratos had a sudden interest in our conversation.

"No, Lloyd's just stupid" Genis said with a smirk.

"Hey! I heard that!" we all turned as Lloyd approached us.

"So your finally awake. It's about time." Kratos stated with a bit of annoyance

"You really like to sleep in, don't you?" I said with a smirk.

Genis got my attention "By the way. You seem to have experience with killing. Why? You look too gentile to kill some one."

The one question that I dread, was just asked. Why? "I'd rather not talk about it." I averted my eyes from the group.

After a brief conversation about the day's plans we left the town and headed towards the Triet ruins. The journey was rather uneventful. Excluding the monsters and bandits that tried to put up a resistance, but were quickly taken down by the group. I had gotten some practice with my magic with the last group of bandits. They had charged at me unknowingly as I shot them in the face with a surge of water. This had left them hacking and coughing, and an open target for the other group members to finish off. We reached the ruins around noon and faced our first round of elemental monsters.

"This is going to be a nuisance." Kratos said after the battle.

"What is?" Lloyd asked

"Ah. Nothing. Anyway, it would be a good idea for all of you to learn techniques to protect yourself." At this we each learned our defensive techniques. Lloyd and I learned Guardian. Collette had learned damage guard. Genis and Raine learned force field. When we neared the ruins something in the back of my mind said stand back, and like all normal people I ignored it.

"Fantastic! Look at this slab covering the entrance! It's clearly of a different composition then the surrounding stone!" everyone stopped what they were doing and was staring at Raine.

"Is she all ways like this?" Kratos hesitantly asked.

"Is she?" Lloyd added.

"Ive been trying so hard to hide it, too." Genis sighed in embarrassment.

I made the choice to ignore the rest of the conversation and talk with Talim.

'Talim do you know why I keep having moments where everything is familiar?'

'_I don't know. If you don't mind I could search your memory to find out why.'_

'Do it.' after I said this, I heard the sound of the stone door as it slid open.

After wandering around the temple solving puzzles, we arrived at the alter. There was a large surge in power as we approached. There was a flash of light as three flaming creatures emerged from the middle of the alter. Everyone else had gotten their weapons out and ready for battle, when I noticed. I quickly drew Talim and turned. Only to end up face to face with a large flaming head. "Oh shi-" was all I was able to say before I was slammed into the stone wall. After it slammed me into the wall it turned to me and fired off several spikes off of it's head. Talim appeared before me and deflected some of the spikes, but some had gotten past her. The ones that got past had pierced my body. Fortunately the ones that she deflected would have hit my vital organs. I could barely watch as Raine came over and started to heal my wounds. I could feel my consciousness slipping as I told Raine to focus on healing the others, sine I was moved out of harm's way. The last thing I remembered was that I asked Talim to help with the battle. I soon passed out after that.

I had awoken that night by the side of a campfire, with some bandages covering my wounds on my arms and legs. I tried to get up but Raine stopped me.

"Max. Your wounds haven't healed yet. You need to rest."

"I thought you could heal my wounds with your magic?"

"I was only able to heal most of your wounds. Without an exsphere to amplify my magic in your body, it will take time to fully heal your wounds."

"Viola" Kratos seemed to have a few questions for me.

"Yes?"

"Who was the woman that helped us in battle? She said that she works for you."

"Yes she does. Why do you ask?"

"Her style of fighting was rather... unique, yet graceful."

"Her name is Talim, and she is not a person. She is the spirit of my sword." I unsheathed Talim and presented her to the group. There was a small glint of light as she appeared next to me.

"Yo" she greeted everyone with a warm smile. We spent what was left of the daylight talking with Talim about her self. It didn't last long as most of her memories had faded over time.

I was taking a small stroll away from camp, to sort out my thoughts. Unbeknown to me a dark figure watched me from the bushes.

_'F-Master!' _Talim quickly grabbed my attention.

'Yes'

_'I found the reason why everything is familiar to you.'_

'What is it?'

_'I'll be blunt. This world is similar to a game you played a long time ago, Tales of Symphonia. I'll push the memories to the surface' _A sudden burst of memories came into my mind. The entire game from start to finish, played through my mind in an instant. The sudden surge of memories leaves me dizzy and I stumble.

"Is something wrong?" a voice asked from behind me. I paled and turned around to face the last person I currently wanted talk to at the moment. Kratos, Origin's seal, Lloyd's father, four thousand year old man, and one of the angel leaders of cruxis was standing right in front of me.

"I..I'm fine." I managed to stutter, trying not to say the wrong things that were racing in my mind.

"You don't look so well."

"I just remembered that I had forgotten something."

"May I inquire what you had forgotten?"

I had to think of something fast, but what? A voice suddenly echoed in my mind. It wasn't Talim's but it was familiar. '_come to the alter'_ was all it said to me. "I believe I dropped something during the battle. I was going to search for it."

"You shouldn't go there alone."

"Would you like to accompany me?"

"My duty is with the chosen, who is resting, not to you."

"Fine. Fine. I have Talim to accompany any ways." I said as I turned towards the ruins. I arrived at the ruins, shortly after my conversation with Kratos, mulling over my thoughts. 'I have knowledge of the future. What to do with it. If any one were to find out about it, it would put me and the people around me would be in danger.' sighing I went though the ruins and found my self at the alter again.

"Your a little late." a voice echoed through the chamber.

"Whose there!" I shouted as I drew Talim from her sheath.

"Calm down. I didn't come to fight... Yet." a guy robed in a cruxian uniform stepped out from behind a pillar. The stranger gave a light bow. "I've been waiting for you Max. My name is Mathew. My lord has taken interest in your potential."

* * *

Mathew: Ah time for my debut.

Mike: indeed.

Mathew: You should really write this story in chronological order, Max.

Max: What? (types away on a computer in his bed)

Mike:(peaks over Max's shoulder) Your writing parts of chapter seven and other parts of other chapters.

Max: Your point?

Mike:...

Mathew: How long have you been "working" on this chapter?

Max:Point taken.

Mike: I swear I gave you enough sedative to take out an elephant... Review Please.


	5. I dont' remember that

Max:Hm. No reviews.

Mike:Again?

Mathew: Eh what can you do?

Max: Beg?

Mike: Besides that.

Mathew: Blackmail?

Mike: No. Never mind just say the disclaimer.

Mathew: RadonMax doesn't own Tales of Symphonia. Only Max, Mathew, and Talim.

Max: Enjoy. I hope.

* * *

Mathew stood before us wearing a white and green Cruxis uniform.

"My lord has taken interest in you, Max" Mathew said. His face was hidden by a simple jester's mask.

"And who exactly is this lord of yours?" I asked

"You will meet him soon. I just came to deliver a message to you."

"And what message would that be?" Talim asked

"Be careful with the people you surround your self with." with that said, there was a bright flash of light and purple feathers scattered all over as Mathew disappeared.

After he left I thought 'What does Yggdrasil want with me?'

* * *

I awoke the next day just before dawn, as Talim instructed. Well she woke me up. Painfully.

"You know you don't have to hit me that hard. I'm rather a light sleeper." I said rubbing another red mark on my face.

"You could have fooled me." she said. We walked a distance from camp.

"Now you will be practicing your sword abilities with this." she tossed a wooden sword to me. As soon as I caught it I was caught off guard by its weight, and fell forward. "it's a special practice sword it's weight is equivalent to two, two-handed swords. Now come at me!" I just looked at the sword and shrugged. I charged at her like in practice. She easily deflected my attack. One thing I learned was with a deflected attack you can use the momentum to aid your next attack. She swung at me and I barely managed to block the strike. We kept up trading blows until we heard noise from beside us as Kratos approached.

"What are you doing up so early?"

"A little bit of training" I stated as I dodged one of Talim's attacks.

"Your balance is off" he said just before Talim knocked me over.

"Don't you have some one to teach?" I asked slightly annoyed. Kratos stayed silent as we exchanged glares.

"How about a quick duel?" Talim asked gesturing at Kratos.

"I don't believe right-" Kratos was trying to say.

"Afraid of losing to a girl?" I quickly added with a smirk on my face.

A majority of the group, that was still sleeping, woke up to the sound of battle as Talim and Kratos fought. I was rather amazed at show of skill and strength. I snacked on a can of Vienna sausages while I watched their battle. A flash of sparks erupted from the training swords, Talim and Kratos were using, as each strike was blocked or dodged. Talim let down a strong slice, that Kratos dodged, and cleaved a rock in two. Kratos retaliated with a horizontal swing to her side, which she blocked with her sword. I felt like I was watching a movie. They had pulled away from each other and rushed at one another. Another flash of sparks as their attacks collided again. The battle would have raged for hours with nether side tiring. Seeing that the sun had risen a fair amount and that the rest of the group stood next to me watching the battle, I had decided to stop them and prepare for the day. Except when I got close to stopping them I had to dodge several sword swings and block several, as I retreated from their battle.

When Talim struck at Kratos again, he deflected her sword straight up leaving her open. Kratos was about to deal the ending blow when he noticed that Talim had drawn a dgagger and blocked his attack. She smerked as she brought down her sword arm, Kratos noticed this and jumped to the side looking for an opening. He had to dodge again as Talim struck with the dagger, glancing a blow off his shield. Kratos took this opportunity to strike her wrist with the pommel of his sword, causing her to drop her dagger. As the dagger fell Talim kicked it towards the mercenary forcing Kratos to jump back to avoid the projectile. With his guard down Talim charged at him with a full swing of her sword. Kratos raised his shield to block the attack and braced for impact, but the attack never hit as Talim drove her sword into the ground and using it as a vault to kick him. The impact sent Kratos flying back about three feet before he recovered and charged at her, knowing full well that the attack would leave her guard open. Talim had to somersault out of the way to avoid his attack. Unfortunately it left her separated from her sword as Kratos charged at her again. Talim charged at Kratos, surprising me, as she pulled out the dagger that she kicked earlier. 'She must have picked it up when she somersaulted earlier.' I thought as Talim deflected Kratos' attack. Talim ducked to avoid another attack as she readied her dagger in her other hand and lashed out at the mercenary, causing him to jump back. Talim then used this opening to bolt towards her embedded sword. Kratos quickly blocked off her advancement with one of his attacks and slammed his shield into her chest, knocking the wind out of her. She lept back trying to recover as Kratos advanced on her. In a desprate attempt she threw her dagger at him. Kratos used his sword to strike the dagger out of the air only to dodge Talim's fist. She had gotten close when she threw the dagger and was fighting Kratos fisticuff style. She grabbed Kratos' sword arm and forced him to drop his sword. She quickly picked up his sword and struck at him. The fight would have ended there if Kratos didn't block the attack with his shield. The attack unfortunately had badly damaged his shield and had forced him to discard it. Kratos dodged another of Talim's attacks and lept back towards Talim's sword. He quickly grabbed the sword and found that he had to use part of his angelic strength to dislodge the sword from the ground. With sword in hand he charged at Talim as she charged at him.

'There has got to be an easier way to stop this fight.' I took another look at them and noticed that Talim was holding back as was Kratos. I knew she was holding back because once we were training and I asked her to show me her full strength on a replica. What I saw was a beautiful display of battle tactics and skill, as she fought a replica of herself. So I was just about to ask if they were going to finish when I heard a sound of metal snapping. Looking up I saw that Kratos and Talim's swords had broken in half and the pieces scattered. They eyed each other before turning towards the group.

"I believe we should be on our way" Rain stated

After some trouble on waking Lloyd, we continued on our way. The sound of a bell chiming reminded me of something I found on my way back from the ruins. As I was heading back to camp a strange rumble shook the ground around me as a large worm surfaced. Talim appeared next to me and we made quick work of it. As we were about to leave there was a red glimmer that caught the corner of my eye and followed it. I came across a grotesque looking sword. I instantly knew what it was, the Soul Eater. I reached out to pick it up when a red tentacle of energy came out and wrapped its self around my arm. There was a hissing noise as part of my flesh burned, I cried out in pain as Talim approached. When she had gotten close the tentacle and the sword had disappeared.

"F-Master are you alright?" Talim examined the burned flesh of my arm. While she examined it the marks slowly faded away and I felt a small surge of power and sound of chiming of bells.

"I think I just absorbed one of the devil's arms" I said blankly, enjoying the power coursing through me. "i don't think that's a good thing." I added

"Max!" Genis broke me out of my memories.

"Y-yes?"

"You look different"

"What do you mean?"

"Your eyes never had a red hue on them"

"That's just something that comes and goes" I lied knowing full well that the effect came from the arm.

_'I think I can help with that problem until we can exorcise that devil's arm from your body.'_

'How?'

_'There is a spell I can cast on you to change your or others appearances'_

'Can you cast it now?' I quickly asked her.

_'No. Not yet the others can still see you.' _

'Good point. Tonight then.' that night Talim used the spell to change my appearances. I snuck away from camp each night changing my looks. And for fun I asked her to change me into people of the group starting from Lloyd, then Genis, etc etc. The spell affected the mana of the one it was casted on. So for a little fun I had her change my mana signature, even tho I had little mana to change, to that of a half-elf and returned to camp. Oh the chaos that ensued. Raine and Kratos got defensive thinking that a Desian or Renegade came to attack them.

"I'm back." I said and instantly found a sword at my throat. In that instant Talim changed my mana signature back to human.

"Oh Max its you." Rain let out a sigh of relief.

Kratos eyed me carefully before sheathing his sword. After that bit of excitement I went to bed. With one eye open.

After several days in the desert, and me almost getting a heat stroke, we had arrived at the Ossa trail.

"Stop!" this had gotten my attention and I knew who that voice was. Sheena Fujibayashi had jumped from her cliff perch and approached us.

"Is the cho-YOU!" she said pointing at me.

"Me?" I seemed to have missed the point.

"You will suffer for what you have done to my village!" after she said this, her guardians appeared. All three of them.

'Oh shi-' was my thought as Talim pushed me out of the way of an oncoming attack. I stumbled for a bit before regaining my balance and drew Talim. The rest of the group had already started attacking the guardians. Kratos was holding his own against one of the guardians, Lloyd had kept another one busy, and Collette surprisingly held her own against the last one as Genis and Raine backed them up. As soon as I regained my focus, I spotted Sheena rushing straight at me with several cards out. She quickly placed one on me and jumped back. "OH NO!" I said before the card exploded throwing me back and leaving my chest bloody with several ribs broken. A green glow covered my wound as it mostly healed. I stood up and thanked Raine as I rushed at Sheena. My attack was blocked by a piece of paper, which surprised me. She tried to place another card on me but I had jumped back. "Cutting edge!" I shouted and struck the air. The wave of energy blasted its way across the battle field towards Sheena. She nimbly dodged it. The wave didn't stop and slammed full force into the guardian that Lloyd was fighting. The guardian let out a loud roar as it split into two and disappeared. A second later another roar was heard as Kratos killed off his opponent. I jumped toward Sheena and slashed at her. She barely dodged the attack and I had slashed her left arm glove off, revealing a large electrical scar running down her arm. The last guardian let out a large roar as it died. This gave me a small opportunity when Sheena was distracted, by her last guardian dieing, and knocked her over. I had my sword pointed at her neck ready to kill, but I held it there.

"Why don't you kill me now!" she yelled.

"What are you talking about?" I said panting.

"I could never forget that face after you slaughtered my village!" she had hate burning in her eyes.

"I believe your confusing me with some one else."

She glared at me and looking over my features. Her eyes snapped wide open as she said "Your eyes. They are not indigo."

"My eyes have always been brown. You need to be more observant Sheena." The last part slipped out. This got a reaction out of everyone.

"How you do know my name?" Sheena asked me with a suspicious glare.

I fumbled a bit and held out Talim. "She told me." trying to cover up the fact that I knew her name.

"Stop lying." she said as she threw a rock at me. I dodged the rock and let out a breath. There was a click behind me. I felt the ground around my feet disappear and the feeling of weightlessness. I had a surprised look on my face as I fell into the mine shaft.

"Max!" Lloyd shouted as I fell.

* * *

"Oh no he fell in!" Collete said as she came closer to the mine shaft.

"Assuming that his weight is 90kg and this hole to be 10m deep, and calculating the gravity constant at 9.8. The impact shouldn't have been fatal." Genis added as he observed the mine entrance.

"Gravity...Constant? I don't understand what you just said, but he's alive, right?" Lloyd added.

"I hope so" Collette said.

"What's this?" Raine said as she picked up something off the ground.

"Oh no that's Max's sword" Lloyd said. "Some one has to go after him!"

"I would advise against that." Kratos interjected.

"But he could be hurt we need to- hey where did that girl go?"

"She isn't of any importance at the moment. There should be another entrance somewhere around here. We would be able to safely search for Max if we find it." Rain suggested to the group.

The group headed through the Ossa trail, fighting off monsters and bandits. They eventually arrived at a large area with a wooden wall.

"Hey whats that?" Lloyd pointed out the boarded up entrance.

"I believe that is the entrance to the m-" Kratos was cut off by a large roar as Max broke through the wooden barricade, being chased by a three armed skeleton.

* * *

I saw Lloyd and the others standing outside of the mine entrance and called out to them.

"A little help here!" I shouted as I barely dodged one of the sword dancers attacks.

The group instantly got up and attacked its blind spot. Kratos and Lloyd letting out a flurry of sword strikes, as Raine and Genis attacked with spells, and Collette using her angelic techniques. I griped the only weapon I had and charged at the distracted monster. I sliced at the monster, as the soul eater seemed to absorb a small part of the sword dancer's essence with each strike. Every time it absorbed some essence, I felt a small pulse of energy flow through me. Each pulse was invigorating. Every strike I wanted more. More, I felt my body's urge for more. I kept slashing at the creature over and over again. The rest of the world seemed to fade as I kept absorbing energy from it. There was a large flash of light as I found myself holding the soul eater in a stalemate against Lloyd with Talim in his hand.

"Max! Calm down it's dead!" Lloyd shouted at me.

I instantly realized that I wasn't fighting the sword dancer. I was fighting Lloyd.

"Lloyd. What's going on?" I said with my body shivering. I took a look around seeing that Kratos was guarding Collette and Raine was holding Genis behind her.

"I don't know but after we defeated that monster, had a crazed look in your eye and kept saying 'More. More' and started attacking us." Lloyd explained.

I looked at my hands and realized I was still holding the soul eater. I instantly threw down the sword. When it hit the ground it disappeared in a flash of red light.

"What was that?" Lloyd asked

"That was the Soul Eater. A cursed weapon." I said staring at the spot where the sword disappeared.

"Why did you have that weapon?" Rain asked as she approached. I couldn't tell her the truth of it being bound to me so I lied.

"When I fell into the mine, I landed on top of that creature and it started to attack me. I reached for my sword but I realized I didn't have it. I quickly looked around for it and spotted a handle of a sword, I grabbed it and used it to defend myself." in reality I had summoned it, from within me, since I couldn't sense Talim.

"I see" Rain seemed to have bought the lie.

"We should get going if I business here is done." Kratos said. He had a small look of concern when I mentioned the Soul Eater, but it was gone in an instant. We had arrived at Izoold late in the evening. We had settled down at the in, and everyone was getting ready for the night. After my little episode earlier in the day I was able to convince them that I should stay. Nothing much happened in Izoold except we found some one who owned a boat and convinced him to take us to Palmacosta. Oddly enough it wasn't Max who took us to Palmacosta but some guy named Jack. We had set sail later that day. We would have left earlier but Raine kept making some excuses about checking supplies. It was an uneventful trip at first. Lloyd and Collette were by the front of the boat. Raine was sitting by the mast with Genis sitting next to her, comforting her through this part of the trip. I was standing next to Kratos polishing Talim as Kratos stood and watched the horizon for trouble. We were just sailing along, Genis had fallen asleep on Raine, Lloyd and Collette were chatting on the side of the boat. I had just finished polishing Talim when Kratos stiffened.

"Prepare for battle" he said.

'This never happened in the game.' was the first thing that crossed my mind.

There was a roar as a gigantic whale monster appeared in front of the ship. It dove into the water and charged at the ship. In a panic I dropped Talim and picked up a harpoon that was on the side of the ship. "Kratos here" I said as I threw him the harpoon. In an instant the monster jumped out of the water and was headed straight at us. Everything went in slow motion as the whale approached us. Kratos had thrown the harpoon and hit the creature in its chest notably killing it in mid-air. Unfortunately the blow wasn't able to change the monsters direction as it crashed into the ship.

* * *

Max: I love it when a story gets a life of its own.

Mike: What do you mean?

Max: Half this chapter I didn't have planed out. I just started typing and this chapter came out.

Mike: Well isn't that how good stories are written?

Mathew: Yes.

Max: Yup

Mike: Now what have we learned in this chapter?

Max: That the devil's arms can mess you up?

Mathew: That anchovies are better with avocados?

Max, Mike: (stare at Mathew)

Mathew: What they are.

Mike: The lesson is. Don't get in the way of Kratos and Talim's duel.

Max: Any ways Please Please Please leave a review. I don't know how well I'm doing. If I'm doing well at all...


	6. Seperation and Eir

Max: I have writer's block!

Mike: Not really.

Mathew: Anchovies with avocados?

Max: Why are you eating now?

Mathew: Why not.

Mike: (sigh) RadonMax does not own Tales of Symphonia.

* * *

Just before the monster crashed into the ship, we had all jumped out at the last moment. The last thing I remember was seeing someone struggling in the water. I grabbed them and pulled them with me onto a piece of the ship's wreckage. I glanced at who I was helping and saw that I had grabbed Genis. I looked around to see if I could find anyone else. Lloyd had surfaced with Collette. Kratos appeared with Raine, who was gripping the man with all the force she could muster. If it wasn't Kratos, the person would have probably died from being crushed. Jack surfaced a moment later. We all had a look of relief until a roar had gotten our attention.

"I thought Kratos killed it" Genis said next to me.

"There must have been another." I said looking around. Suddenly a gigantic whale shot out of the water, engulfing Jack in the process. It tipped forward and was falling towards the group. As it fell everyone grabbed the person closest to them. When it landed I was knocked out.

* * *

I had awoken on a beach still holding a piece of the ships hull. The beach was settled next to a cliff with a small stream emptying into the ocean. When I finally came to my senses I noticed that Genis washed up just a short distance away. I quickly went over to him and checked if he was still among the living. I quickly checked for a pulse but not knowing the anatomy of a half elf left me to wonder if it was still the same. Not taking much of a risk, I placed my head against his chest and heard his heartbeat.

"Good he's still alive." I uttered to myself. I had noticed that I was just a little lighter than usual. I reached over and noticed that Talim was missing again. I quickly surveyed the area hoping I that I would be able to find her. I wasn't able to find her and she was out of range for the mind link. Genis groaned as he woke up.

"Are you ok Genis?"

"I feel like a giant monster landed on me."

"One did"

"Oh...Yah... Where's everyone else?"

"I don't know. We wound up separated I guess. We should get going and search for the others. While we are at it lets look for my sword." Looking around we decided to follow the beach to see if we could find anyone else.

* * *

Lloyd awoke with a groan. Everything was hazy, he had grabbed Collette as the monster came down and held her tight. When he realized he was laying down next to her, still holding onto her hand.

"Collette!" Lloyd shouted

"Calm down Lloyd she's only sleeping" Raine said as she approached

"Professor! Where is everyone else?"

"We must have gotten separated when the monster attacked" Raine said as she looked around for any other group members.

There was a small bit of mumbling as Collette woke up.

"Collette your OK!" Lloyd ran over and gave her a hug

"Lloyd. Can't. Breath." Collette choked out

"Oh sorry Collette" Lloyd instantly let go

"Now if you two are done. I can see Palmacosta off in the distance." after Raine said this they had gathered the items that they could find and started their journey towards Palmacosta.

* * *

Genis and I have been traveling for a good hour and we still didn't find any of the others.

"Do you think we are headed in the right direction?" Genis asked me.

"I'm not sure but we have to find the others." I said when a noise had gotten my attention. A group of six people had shown up and got my attention. "Hey do you know how to get to Palmacosta?" I asked them.

"It's just north of here. Keep following the beach and you'll get to it." one said

"I have a question" another asked.

"Yes?" I said putting up my guard.

"Is he with you?" pointing to Genis

"Yes he is. Why?" I was getting a bad feeling.

"You know he's a half elf." Genis instantly paled.

"How do you know this?" I said getting ready to grab Genis and run.

"Come here you bitch" another said as he pulled on a rope. I was shocked when they pulled a young girl out into the open. She looked like she was the same age as Genis and was badly beaten. From what I could tell, she had an auburn hair with olive-green eyes and pointed ears. "Now. Is that boy over there a half elf?" he said to the girl. She flinched and looked up at us. I could see her bruised face as she looked at us. The next thing I knew Genis shouted "Fire Ball!" as several flaming orbs headed towards the group. One of them grabbed the girl and used her as a shield to block the fireballs. She screamed in pain as each one hit.

"You Bastard!" I shouted as the Soul Eater appeared in my hand.

"Max why do you have that! ?" Genis recognized the weapon.

"We'll talk later. But if I go crazy again I'll need you to stop me." Genis gave me a nod as I took off towards the group.

* * *

Kratos was walking down the beach trying to locate the rest of the group while a shadowy figure followed him. He ignored the person following him. The sunlight glistened off of the person's blue hair and reflected off their armor. Kratos was slightly annoyed with the straggler.

"Why are you following me?" He suddenly asked.

"If I follow you I will most likely find my master." Talim responded. Kratos sighed and kept on walking.

* * *

There was a yelp as one of the attackers lost his arm to my attacks. He would have screamed if I had not pierced his throat with my sword. The rest of the group came at me with their assorted weapons. I simply sided stepped an attack from the Axe welding brute and parried a sword strike from another. I didn't see the pole-arm coming at me from behind until lightning had struck him. I looked over at Genis and saw that he was preparing another spell. I knocked the three people who were attacking me off their feet, just as a large electrical sword descended and impacted the ground around the attackers. The surge of electrical magic had taken care of the three as I ran towards the last two. One of them was an archer and had an arrow notched aimed at me. I didn't see the arrow in time as he missed with the first arrow but the second had gotten me in my left shoulder. Barely ignoring the pain I quickly closed the distance between us and gave a diagonal upward slash. I had made contact with him and opened up his chest, effectively killing him. I then heard the Soul Eater whispering into my mind. _'More. More. More!' _"Stop!" the last one shouted as he held a dagger to the girl's throat. He knew what I wanted. He knew that the odds were in his favor as long as he held onto the girl. "Now put down that sword and kick it to me." I gnashed my teeth together as I put down the Soul Eater and kicked it over to him. _'Kill them. Leave no survivors.'_ echoed through my mind. 'NO!' I mentally shouted, desperately trying to drown out the swords whispers. I stood there glaring at the man, using a child as a shield, utterly disgusted. Little did I know that I would be using the same tactics later. He bent over, not removing the dagger from the girls throat, picked up the sword and threw it behind him. "Now come here." he said. I tried to look for Genis as I approached, but he was nowhere in sight. When I got close enough to him, he had put down the girl and gave me a swift kick in my gut. I fell over with the wind knocked out of me and gasping for air. While I was on the ground he kept kicking me. "Why are you helping these pieces of shit?" he said as he tugged on the rope that tied up the girl. The sudden jerk caused her to lose her balance and fall. She hit her head against the ground and was knocked out. The man didn't notice as he stepped on my throat. I had my hands around his leg trying to prevent him from crushing my windpipe. When my vision started to get blurry I heard him gag and looked up. I saw the tip of the Soul Eater sticking out of the front of his chest and Genis behind him gripping the sword. The very sight was shocking, to say the least. The thing that scared me was the look in his eyes. It looked like he enjoyed stabbing the man from behind. As I finally recovered and stood up I looked over at Genis as the corpse slid off of the sword.

"Are you all right?" I asked. He said nothing. Bad sign.

"Genis... Put that sword down." I said. Still nothing. This is where I get nervous.

"You just want it for your self." He finally said.

"Calm down Genis. Your falling into the corruption of the sword." I slowly approached him. The next thing I knew he had attacked me. I barely dodged the attack as I looked into his eyes. His eyes had a slight red tint to them and looked malicious. The first thing that came into my head was that I needed to get the sword away from him. I was about to dodge another attack when my foot got snagged on a rock. There was a sickening sound as the blade pierced my chest and exit my back side. I took this small opportunity to grab onto the sword and shove Genis away before he could pull out the blade. I looked down as could feel the Soul Eater trying to drain my energy, but since I was already bound to it my energy flowed back into me. I looked back up to see Genis' horrified look.

"M-Max w-what happened?" his voice was trembling with the realization of what happened. Luckily Genis only punctured my right lung. I made sure to keep the sword lodged there to control the bleeding. Even if I kept the sword there I would eventually succumb to blood loss. I quickly remembered the reason of why I was fighting.

"Genis. Don't worry about me. I'm fine for now. Go check on the girl." I gasped out. Genis wiped the tears that were in his eyes and ran over to the unconscious girl. With some effort I was able to move over to a rock to lean on. From there I watched as Genis tended to the girl by bandaging her wounds and giving her some gels. I had eaten some apple gels and it helped with the pain but it wasn't enough to heal my wounds. I was staring at the clear blue sky as darkness started to cloud my vision and I passed out. When I had awoken the Soul Eater was taken out of me and my wounds were bandaged. There was a scent of herbs coming from the bandages and a campfire not far from me.

"Your awake" a soft voice had gotten my attention. I had tried to speak but found it painful.

"Don't talk. Your right lung has collapsed." a tall woman with long green hair and leaves sticking out behind her ears had approached me. My eyes widened as I recognized who she was.

"Martel" I spoke through the pain. She smiled at me and shook her head.

"My name is Ariel" she spoke softly. "I was passing through the area when I heard some children crying." she looked over to Genis and the child as they slept next to each other sharing a blanket. "If I hadn't arrived when I did you might not have had the chance to talk with me." I nodded in response and looked up to the star filled sky.

"I have a question" she said as she looked over at the sleeping children. "Your human but you care for those ones over there even though they are of mixed blood. Why?" I tried to answer but found it too painful. So I did the next best thing. I bit my bottom lip as I moved my arm off my lap and started to write in the dirt.

'That boy is a friend of mine and he is a good child. I came across that girl when we ran into a group of people who were hunting half elves. I don't really care about one person's race as long as they are a good person at heart. I don't like seeing people being abused before me and not doing anything. I ended up killing that group of people because I could barely resist the whispers of that damn sword.'

"I see" was all she said. She held a cup of liquid to my lips. "Drink this it will help in your recovery" I did what she said and swallowed the bitter liquid. A few moments later I felt my eyelids grow heavy as I drifted off to sleep. I had awoken the next morning to the sun blinding me I groaned and noticed that most of the pain in my chest was gone. I quickly examined my chest to find that most of my bandages had been removed. I then noticed a folded letter in my lap and an open holy bottle next to the ashes of the campfire.

_Max_

_It was an honor to meet some one like you. It's not everyday that you find some one like you who doesn't care about one's race but the heart of the person. It's also hard to find some one who will go out of their way to help a random stranger. Take care in your adventure. Be careful with the people you surround your self with._

_Ariel_

A noise had gotten my attention as Genis and the child woke up.

"Good morning" I said with a small amount of pain

"Max your awake!" Genis shouted as he ran over. I had to hold out my arm to stop him from landing on me and risk reopening my wound. I felt a droplet of water land on my arm as I looked at him. He was crying.

"I-I don't know what happened yesterday when your sword was tossed away and he started to hit you I don't know what happened. I picked up your sword and after that everything was a blur the next thing I realized was that I had just stabbed you!" he would have probably kept going if I didn't stop him.

"Genis! Calm down I'm still alive and I don't blame you for what happened yesterday. That's the thing about cursed weapons, sometimes you lose your control to the power of the weapon. Now the important part. How is our friend doing?" There was a small eep as the girl ducked behind Genis.

"Oh, This is Eir she's..." Genis started

"A half elf" I finished. As I said this they both flinched. "Don't worry about it I'll keep your secret. Both of yours."

"Y-you knew?" Genis asked

"Since the day we met" I said trying to stand up only to stumble. After I rested a little more I asked Genis if he could find me something I could use as support, like a stick. He had a flash of inspiration as he ran off leaving Eir with me.

"So" I tried to start a conversation with Eir "Do your parents know where you are?" she looked away and shook her head. "I think they are looking for you" again she shook her head. A bad feeling started to rise in my chest. "Why do you think they aren't looking for you?" I asked cautiously.

"They were killed" She whispered.

"Oh" was all I could say at the moment.

"Thank you for saving me and avenging their deaths." she said in a very meek tone. I couldn't help but smile.

"No problem. What are you going to do now?"

"um... well I was wondering if I could follow you and Genis."

"it's fine with me. Genis and I are looking for the rest of our friends."

"More humans?" she seemed to grimace at this

"Yes more humans but there is another half elf" she seemed to take comfort in that there were more half elves in the group. That moment Genis returned with the pole-arm one of the group members had. "Thanks Genis" I grabbed the weapon and used it as a walking stick. I had gathered enough energy for us to continue our journey to Palmacosta. We had followed the beach with only few encounters with monsters. During the small battles I had discovered Eir's fighting style. She would be a close combat type with all her attacks reinforced with elemental magic. For some reason the way she used her magic attacks reminded me of some T.V show that I watched when I was younger. Just after the sun set we had found a level area to set up camp under a cliff. It had gotten dark as Genis and Eir fell asleep next to each other. It had gotten cold and I used my cape as a blanket and covered them. I pulled out my coat from my bag and put it on to stave off the cold. Since we had run out of holy bottles I had decided to stay up and watch out for monsters. I heard a noise from outside of camp and prepared a spell.

_'MASTER!' _ Talim's shout gave me a slight headache and she ran out of the bushes and crashed into me.

"Ow. Talim. Get of. Wounded" I said as Kratos emerged from the bushes.

"I see we have found your master." he said with a hint of relief "Is the chosen here?" I couldn't help my self when he said that. I had gotten back up into a sitting position.

"I'm sorry but our princess is in another castle." I said with a smirk. He just gives me a quick glare as he turned around and disappeared into the night. Away from camp a figure dressed in Desian uniform approached Kratos and knelt before him. "My lord. The chosen is in Palmacosta." Kratos gave him a curt nod as he headed towards Palmacosta. Once Kratos was out of range the figure took off the Desian helmet and placed on a jester's mask and disappeared.

Back at the camp I was having a conversation with Talim.

"The Soul Eater is giving us problems" I said uncovering my wounded chest.

"We need to take care of it then." she said as she took out a slip of paper. In her other hand a brush appeared and she wrote some design onto the tag. She placed it on my chest and it instantly dissolved into my skin. I heard a bell chime when the tag disappeared and a feeling of something getting suppressed within me.

"Lets hope that holds it" I said

"It will" she said. After the tag was placed on me I instantly felt my energy drop. I eventually couldn't fight my drowsiness and drifted to sleep.

* * *

Lloyd, Raine, and Collette had arrived in Palmacosta after spending some time searching for anyone else. No one in the group had noticed a shadowy figure watching them from atop one of the building as they entered the city. "Looks like Max has not joined them yet." the figure said to them self. There was a noise as a green haired female approached.

"How is Lloyd's group coming along?" she asked

"They just arrived nothing major happened" the figure responded

"You know Mathew, things might be easier if you take off that silly jester's mask."

"I like the mask, Ariel. I'm entitled to my mysteries. Speaking of mysteries how did it go with Max?" Mathew said as he kept an eye on Lloyd.

"I arrived just in time to save him. I'm headed back to check if things are ready for our guest of honor. Keep a watchful eye on that group it's important that things stay on track." Ariel said

"As you wish." Mathew said with a bow. There was a flash of light as Ariel disappeared. With that Mathew jumped off the building and blended into the crowd as they emerged from the marketplace.

* * *

Max: I just realized that I can describe Talim looking like Yuan. And yes her original design she has dark blue hair. In the first chapter I just said dark hair.

Mathew: I hope you can keep track of all the things you're doing.

Max: I hope so too.

Mike: Make a list.

Max: I have one. It's longer then this chapter.

Mike:... I'm going to bed.

Max: Leave your reviews. Please. And all the errors you find so I can correct them. Thank You.

Computer voice: Caution Mental Breakdown in Process. Preparing sedatives. (The room gets filled with sleeping gas as everyone falls asleep)


	7. Back on track Kinda

Mathew: Yay! Writers block! /end sarcasm. We apologize for late update but we were distracted by a certain "Cataclysm" and as for an apology a long chapter. For my standards.

Max: I... I... I CANT TAKE IT!

Mike: What?

Max: (searches though several boxes) FOUND IT!

Mathew: What did you find?

Max: (laughs darkly) The fast forward button.

Mike Mathew: NO! (Tackles Max and pins him down. Through the fighting Mike is able to grab the remote from Max's hand.)

Mike: This is to be used later. Not now!

Max: (incoherent screaming)

Mike: Mathew take him to his room and tie him down.

Mathew: Yes Sir! (Drags Max into a room where a struggle can be heard)

Mike: Sigh. This is going to be a long story. RadonMax doesn't own Tales of Symphonia. (looks over story) This chapter is longer then I expected.

Mathew: Btw Collette is a little out of character, because I'm tired of her always being the damsel in distress and would like to see her as a true chosen.

Mike: And what is a true chosen?

Mathew: It depends.

Mike: On?

Mathew: Your view on a "chosen". Now read the story!

* * *

When morning arrived, I had recovered from the sudden energy loss, of sealing the Soul Eater within me. Genis and Eir were still asleep leaning on each other. 'I wonder how this will affect Genis and Presea's relationship' I wondered to my self. Ignoring my pain I had gotten out a few things of food and had started cooking when some one called out to me.

"You shouldn't be moving so much after getting healed. Your wounds might reopen." Ariel said as she approached the camp.

"It doesn't hurt as much anymore." I said stirring the food. She just came up and poked me in my chest. "Gah!" I shouted as I fell over clutching my wound. My shout had awoken Genis and Eir. They quickly ran over.

"What did you do to him?" Genis shouted at Ariel.

"Just proving my point." Ariel said as she reached into her bag and pulled out a few vials of liquid. Later that morning Ariel had finished applying her medicine and had changed my bandages.

"Thank you Ariel, but I have just one question." I got up and served my self some of the food that I had cooked earlier "Why are you helping a complete stranger, that is a human, like me?" I continued.

"Do I need a reason?" she replied. "That reminds me. On my way back here, to check on you. I ran into some strange people."

"Strange people?" I responded hoping it wasn't any more of those racist bastards.

"Two humans and a half elf. What was odd was that the boy was wearing a red jacket with white trailings, and that the half elf was leading the way."

"Wait. Did the half elf have an orange coat on?" Genis quickly asked.

"Yes she did" Ariel said with a curious look on her face.

"That's my sister!" Genis shouted and ran over to Ariel. "Do you know where they are?" suddenly Ariel looked really nervous talking to Genis, just like she recognized him, or reminded her of some one.

"Th-They just got to Palmacosta when I saw th-them."She said taking a step back looking really nervous.

"As I said we are going to Palmocosta. Thank you for everything you've done for us." I said with a slight bow. I stopped when the pain in my chest got too intense. I had also pulled Genis back since it looked like Ariel was getting uncomfortable around him. Which was odd since they were both half elves.

"N-No problem." She seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as Genis sat back down and started to happily chat with Eir. "OK here you go" she said as she handed me a few vials of green fluid.

"What's this for?" I asked as I swirled the liquid.

"That's my secret formula for pain suppression. If your wound gets unbearable just drink that. It should suppress the pain long enough for it to heal."

"OK. Last question. How am I going to pay you back for all the help you've given me?" I placed the vials into my bag. And when I looked up she was right next to me.

"Well..." she said with a desire in her voice as she ran her finger down my chest. "There _is_ one thing you can do..." she whispered into my ear.

"I-I think you should stop. Genis and Eir are staring." she stopped when I mentioned them and pulled back with a disappointed look on her face.

"Don't worry you will be able to pay me back later on. When we meet again." she said as she waved.

"So where are you headed?" Genis asked suddenly.

"Well.. I'm on my way to Luin, and I thought that I would pass by Asguard." she said with a nervous smile. "This may be the last time we see each other for some time."

"Thank you again for everything that you have done for us. Until we meet again." I held my hand out. When she shook my hand I think she was distracted since she basically crushed my hand.

"OW OW OW!" I yelled as I tried to remove my hand from her grip.

"I'm sorry, I forget my strength sometimes." when she said this my eye twitched. We finally said our good byes and departed for Palmacosta. The few battles that we encountered were easily taken down as Genis blasted them by his spells and Eir's specialized attacks. Since I was still recovering I was somehow being ordered, by children, to rest and stay out of battle. Unfortunately we had come across a group of bandits who were overpowering Eir and Genis, forcing me to join the battle. They had taken out two of the five bandits but were getting worn down by fatigue. I quickly stepped in, drinking one of Ariel's potions to numb the pain, and dispatched a third. I dodged the fourths attack and rammed my blade through his chest. Giving it a twist I ripped my sword out of his body, knowing full well that the wound was fatal. "Thunder Blade" Genis shouted as the large electrical sword crashed into the last one, impaling and electrocuting him. There was a cry that had gotten my attention and turned around. The one I thought I had killed had gotten up and attacked Eir. Thunder Blade's shock wave soon finished him off but not before he left a deep gash in Eir's leg. Genis and I quickly ran over to her. She was clutching her wound and crying. It took me a moment to move her hands so I could properly dress the wound. When I finished she started to pass out eater from the pain or fatigue probably both. Before she completely passed out I had taken out one of the vials and told her to drink. As the bitter liquid passed her lips she retched trying to spit out the liquid. In her weakened state she was only able to spit out a small part of the liquid but swallowed the rest. Several moments passed as she seemed to settle down as the anesthetics took effect and drifted to sleep.

"We should get moving." I said as I picked up Eir.

"Are you sure you can carry her? Your still recovering. I probably can carry her you know."

"What? Are you afraid that I'm steeling your girlfriend?"

"N-NO! It's not that! It's because your hurt and you should be resting." Genis said as he was trying to hide his face.

"Then why are you blushing?" I said as I adjusted Eir on my back so I could carry her. "Lets get going" While we were traveling Eir was stirring from a dream that she was having.

"Daddy" she said as she hugged my neck. I sighed as she stirred up emotions that I had thought I burred long ago.

We traveled most of the day and finally saw the gates to Palmacosta when it became late in the day. When we entered the city the streets were empty.

"Where is everyone?" Genis asked.

"Don't know. We should get to the inn. We need a room to stay in, plus we might find everyone else already there." I said as I adjusted Eir on my back, who was feeling better. I hoped we find Raine soon so she can heal our wounds.

"I hope so" Genis sounded hopeful as we walked deeper into the city. The city was much bigger then in the game. It also had canals and waterways instead of streets. This had reminded me of Venice, Italy back on earth. Thinking about Earth had gotten me a little depressed. I saw Genis and Eir looking at me with a curious look on their face and I shook it off. Luckily in a few moments I had spotted the inn off in the distance. We had passed by a burned out building when Eir stopped me and was staring at the building. Curious on what the shop was I looked at it a moment and found the damaged sign. I was thankful that the sign was made with carved letters. Squinting my eyes I saw that the sign read "Avalon's". Without thinking I had uttered the store's name.

"That store was an antique shop, It was run by a man Derick. He was a nice guy." A random old man said as he came up next to me. Our attention was now focused on him.

"What happened?" Genis voiced our similar curiosity as Eir looked as she was fighting her emotions.

"He was found brutally beaten and was taken to one of the city's doctors. He was dead on arrival. As he was being taken to the doctor, some one had broken into the shop and had set it on fire."

"That's terrible." I said

"It's sad that some one would do that. Almost makes me lose hope that salvation will come, but since the chosen came I became hopeful again."

"That's good. Do you know where the chosen is right now?"

"She should be at the church. It's right next to the inn."

"Ok thank you and have a good day."

"You to kid." I turned to give my thanks but the old man was already halfway down the block. We were heading towards the Inn when we passed a familiar looking store.

"Genis!" some one shouted as we were about to pass. This had gotten our attention as Lloyd, Raine, Collette, and Kratos exited the store.

"Lloyd, Raine, Collette" Genis responded as he ran over to them. I felt something pull on my cloak only to find that Eir had some how taken shelter under my cloak away from the group of people.

"Are you ok?" I asked and she shook her head. "What's wrong?" she just pointed to the group and I understood "Don't worry those are good people. If you can't tell there's another half elf there" I whispered the last part to her. She just nodded and hid in my cloak. Sighing I walked over to the group with Eir still hiding in my cloak.

"Hey guys. I see that everyone is in pretty good condition."

"I'm glad that your OK too!" Collette said when she noticed Eir in my cloak. "Hey Max whose that?"

"This is Eir." I said as I tried to pull my cloak away to reveal her. I found out that she has a good grip as I tugged several times finally reveling her clutching my neck. "I helped rescue her from a group of people who killed her parents, and had been holding her against her will." I received a horrified look from Collette and Lloyd when I mentioned her parents. Raine just gave me an odd look. Did she suspect me of some wrong doing? I didn't have much time to think about it when the anesthetic started to wear off and I gripped my healing wound. I soon found it hard to stand as the pain grew. The wound might have been effected from carrying Eir. I fell to one knee as the group took notice of my injuries as the wound reopened, staining my shirt with blood. I heard people shouting my name as the world grew dark. I awoke in a bed with my wounds freshly bandaged and mostly healed. 'I've got to get myself an exsphere, at least for the increased healing part.' I thought to myself. Sitting up I took a look out the window and saw that it was already dark out.

"Your awake" some one said from the other side of the room. Letting my eyes adjust to the dark, I saw Raine at a desk looking over some papers.

"Yes-"

"Please keep your voice down the children are sleeping" I then noticed Genis and Eir sleeping in the bed next to mine.

"Oh" I said as I lowered my voice to a whisper. "Let me guess Genis told you everything. And the fact that I know about you and your brother's secret. Not to mention Eir's" I attempted to sit up when I noticed Talim was laid down next to me.

"Yes. He did. He also said that you promised not to tell anyone." I nodded in response "Good. Now onto the important subject, tell me what do you know about that Devil's Arm. That is what it's called right?" she had a look of worry and one that said that I wouldn't be leaving unless I told her everything. After giving me a quick checkup on my health and examining what was left of my wound, I began telling her what I knew. I knew that it was going to change the future but I thought I wouldn't hurt if some one knew the dangers of the weapons. After a few hours we decided that we would continue this conversation later. More like I fell asleep while she was writing her notes and had to be woken up several times. I eventually had gotten to a point where I was too exhausted to wake up and kept sleeping. Little did I know that while I was asleep I had missed something with Eir, as she was restless in the bed.

The night was disturbed as a child's cry was heard throughout the Inn, but for some reason I had slept through it.

"Are you alright?" Raine said as she approached Eir who was crying as Genis tried to comfort her.

"Y-yeah" But I'm not sure about her.

"What's wrong?" Raine said as she sat down next to the crying girl giving her a gentle hug.

"Mommy, Daddy" She said between sobs.

"Shh. There there. Your safe now." Rain said as she stroked her auburn hair. Her sobs became quiet as she fell back asleep on Raine's lap. Raine looked over at her brother to find that he too had fallen asleep.

* * *

Clang! It was the next day and several people had gotten up early to get some training done. Being injured Talim said I could take the day and rest. But promised me that in order to catchup with the days that I missed, that the training would become more intense. Oh joy... Kratos had woken Lloyd early that morning to take him sword training. With the commotion of trying to wake Lloyd up Collette woke up and decided to watch the training.

"Your still open and you stance is off." Kratos said as he blocked Lloyd's attack. With a flick of his wrist Kratos knocked Lloyd over.

"Are you alright?" Collette said as she came over.

"Don't help him." Kratos curtly said causing Collette to stop.

"I'm ok Collette." Lloyd said as he got up and dusted himself off.

"Now adjust your stance and come at me again." Kratos said as he put away his sword.

"Like this?" Lloyd asked. He got a response from the last person thought to be giving battle advice.

"No like this." Collette said as she adjusted Lloyd's body to a proper fighting stance. This got the attention of Lloyd and Kratos.

"I was under the impression that you did not know much about fighting. Chosen." Kratos said as he approached the two.

"I was trained since I was a child on how to fight. It was all to prepare me for this journey." she said staring off into the distance with a sad look in her eyes.

"Wow Collette I didn't know you knew how to fight." Lloyd said with his goofy smile. The look on his face instantly erased the sadness in Collette as it reminded her why she was doing this journey. She was doing it for him.

"I would like to see the extent of your training. If you don't mind Chosen" Kratos said as he pulled out some wooden chakrams.

"Against you?" She said with a nervousness in her eyes that didn't escape Kratos. He seemed to think about it for a moment.

"I would like to see your skills compared to Lloyd's. So I would like to see you two have a simple spar."

"Wait what?" Lloyd seemed confused that he would be having a spar against his childhood friend.

"Begin when your ready." Kratos said as he stepped back.

"I don't want t-" Lloyd didn't finish his sentence as he had to dodge a chakram. He didn't have time to respond as Collette appeared next to him and knocked him over. Before he landed he rolled away and stood up knowing that he underestimated his childhood friend. He drew his wooden swords and was about to charge when he dodged another chakram. Collette caught her weapon and charged at Lloyd. He blocked her attack as she reached behind her to pull out her second chakram. She struck at his opening, knocking the wind out of him. "I'm sorry" she said as she kicked him in his chest. He flew back a few feet, with a large bruise on his chest, and gritted his teeth as he landed. It was impressive that he was still standing, even with a blow to his abdomen. Lloyd jumped towards Collette with a new demeanor and both swords drawn. She easily blocked his assault with one of her chakrams and lashed out with the other causing him to jump back. He then rushed at her the moment he landed and slashed at her. She dodged one sword then the other. In a single moment she held out one of her chakrams, in which he ended up sending one of his swords through the opening. Smiling Collette used the chakram to disarm one of his swords causing both weapons to fall to the ground. He didn't have time to retrieve his weapon as he dodged another attack. Lloyd swung his other sword as Collette ducked and tripped him. He fell onto his back and was now facing the tip of his own sword.

"That's enough." Kratos said as he approached. Collette and Lloyd were both breathing hard as they looked each other. When their eyes met they both blushed and looked away. A cough interrupted them as Kratos watched them with a very slightly amused look on his face, for a brief moment. "That is enough training for today. Lets head back and see if the rest are ready to leave." the two teens nodded and headed back into town.

* * *

I had been wandering around Palmacosta for a good hour, after finishing my chat with Raine, and had decided to go to the harbor. At the edge of a dock I saw Sheena sitting with Corrine on her lap. This was a chance to ask about why she attacked me instead of Collette. I swallowed hard knowing that she could easily kill me and approached her rather noisily.

"Hey" I said when I got close enough

"YOU!" she shouted holding up several cards.

"Not again! It's me, the one with the brown eyes!" I shouted.

"Oh. It's you. What do you want?" she said slightly lowering her guard.

"I was just wondering, why did you attack me instead of the chosen."

"How did you know that-"

"Renegade" I said pointing to myself.

"That makes sense" she let down her guard even more.

"So. Who is the person I remind you of?" I asked as I sat down next to her.

"It's kinda of personal." she said looking off into the distance.

"OK, but from what I gathered he destroyed Mizuho."

"It wasn't that. Most of my village accompanied me to the temple of lightning, in order to help with getting a pact with the summon spirit that resides there. We had gotten to the altar and he was there, talking to Volt. The moment he realized that we were there, he turned to us and ordered Volt to attack us. Only a handful of people escaped that day. I was one of the lucky ones and my grandfather..." Sheena looked like she was going to cry at any moment but kept her composure.

"I'm sure you'll find him and give him what he deserves." I said staring into the sky. There was a slight gust of wind and when I looked back Sheena was gone. "Wow she's good."

It was getting late so I decided to head back from my wandering. I had decided to take an alleyway as a short cut to get back to the Inn, where the rest of the group had met up.

"Excuse me sir, but do you have the time?" a random stranger asked me. And without thinking or looking at him, I took out a watch that I had in my pocket and told him the time.

"You do realize that they don't have clocks here in Sylvarant." I froze realizing on what I had just done. What he said next really caught me off guard. "Good morning, Max" I finally turned to look at him. He stood there in a polished silver and royal blue plate armor, that had red and orange runes running up the right side. On one shoulder was a sculpture of an eagle with its wings spread out, on the other were crimson spikes. A royal blue cape hung from his back with golden embroidering. It was odd that the end of the cape seemed to float in the air, probably too much starch. His hands were covered gauntlets, that were made with the same silver-blue metal as his chest. The back of each gauntlet had a reverse pointed spike and a crimson stripe running down the sides. His metallic boots had wings sticking out the back side. His greaves were crimson with a blue filigree decorating it. On his face was a black and white jester's mask instead of a metallic helmet.

"Matthew" I said glaring at him.

"Close but no." The stranger responded. He removed the mask that obscured his face and jet black hair. I paused and took a good look at the stranger, because it looked like I was standing face to face with myself. "And before you ask." he said as he took off one of the armor pieces to his legs revealing an old scar. I immediately recognized it since I had the exact same scar which I had gotten by falling out of a tree as a child.

"What are you dong here? We both know what changing the past can do." I asked after he had proved who he was.

"Changing some parts of the past. You know that I know the consequences with tempering with time, but there are some things I do anything to change, and would have done anything to do it. So when I got the opportunity to do it, I took it." He said as he looked up to the sky.

"Did you steal Dock Brown's car?" I asked. We chuckled at that for a bit.

"No, nothing like that. But before we get distracted even more. Talim." there was a slight haze as Talim appeared next to me with a curious look on her face. When she appeared my future self had a slight saddened look upon his face, but shook it off. "Talim you might want to remove that seal that you placed upon us."

"What why?" I said as I placed my hand over where the seal was.

"The devil's arms are growing in power. So it's like a wooden dam holding back a raging river. Eventually it will burst and when that happens, it won't be pretty." he said as he took out a small toy and looked at it. Talim had a curious look on her but nodded and placed her hand over the seal and closed her eyes.

"What is that?" I asked feeling the power of the devil's arm start to course through me again.

"Just a reminder" was all he said before he put it back in his pocket. "Is it done?"

"Yes I removed the seal, just like you asked." she paused a moment then asked "When will you find out?"

"In a few years." He said remorse evident in his tone. "I could never hate you for keeping it a secret from me." Talim smiled at this and I swear I saw a tear in the corner of her eye.

"Ok. What are you two talking about?" I said feeling left out of a conversation between my self and my sword.

"You will find out in a few years time. Just be patient and don't rush it. It is important that you wait." My future self said before reaching behind him and pulled out Nebilim and a strange-looking key.

"Why do you have that?" I asked as he handed them to me. There was a pulse of energy and pain as my body absorbed the swords.

"It's a lot easier to get it from me instead of having to torture that guy for it."

"Abyssion? I don't remember his name."

"Yeah. Originally it took some convincing, with a blunt object, for him to hand those over."

"Also you might want to keep this with you as well." He said as he held out a small purple crystal.

"What is this and what do I do with it?"

"It's a suppository." when he said that the look of horror on my face was indescribable. Then I saw myself trying to hold back his laughter and failing.

"Very funny." I said sarcastically

"So what is it?" Talim asked.

"Uranium... No just kidding again. It's a special crystal I acquired from a "traveler". You use it by crushing it in your hand." he said as I picked it up from his hand.

"Wait. What's this for? And what kind of "traveler" did you meet?" I stared disbelieving what my future self said.

"It's a special crystallized energy. You'll know when to use it. And for the traveler lets just say he came to this world before..."

"Before what?" Talim asked

"You know...war..." my future self said as Talim and I had a realization on what he meant, but at the time I didn't know that Talim knew.

"oh yeah... But how did he get here?" He just gave me a deadpan stare as he pointed to Talim.

"You will find out. Just be careful."

"Any ways. Why do you have a similar mask as Mathew?" I said pointing at the jester's mask

"It's to prevent key people from recognizing me"

"Key people?"

"Like Lloyd, Kratos, or any other people who would affect the time line if they recognized you."

"OK... but back to changing the past, would you changing the past have anything to do with us getting home faster?"

"Sadly no."

"But I still get home right?" after I said that my future self paused for a moment before responding.

"That is for you to see." he said with a smug look on his face. All of a sudden he winced in pain and collapsed onto the ground clutching his head.

"What's wrong?" I shouted as I ran over to him.

"It's just an after effect of the devil's arms breaking Talim's seal" He said between breaths. He coughed a bit before shaking his head and getting up. "I'm fine."

There was a metallic chink as someone appeared around the corner. He stood about five foot eight and was wearing a teal plate armor set. His head was covered in an intricately designed helmet that had glowing runes written across the top part of his chest plate. Just about every piece of his armor had runes etched into it and each rune gave a subtle white glow. He too wore a cape but his was teal with white embroidery. His face was obscured by his winged helmet and the part of his face that was exposed was covered with a red cloth, namely his nose and mouth.

"Max its time that we moved to the next location." his voice was that of a teen-aged person. Albeit it was slightly familiar.

"So soon?" Talim asked

"I'm afraid so" he said as he came over and put a hand on Talim's head. What I found odd was that she seemed to nuzzle into his hand.

"Well it was nice to get to chat with myself" I said eying the crystal he handed me. "It was nice meeting you um..."

"Just call me Thirteen" the man in the teal armor said with a slight nod.

"OK Thirteen" I turn to my future self "Who is Thirteen? He seems familiar." I said with an accusing look on my face.

"He's a half elf I met. He's been with me the longest" my future self said as he turned and started to walk away giving a slight wave over his shoulder. Thirteen looked me and Talim over before following.

"Talim it's ok for you to sleep next to me." my future self said as he rounded the corner and disappeared.

"It's not everyday that you talk with your self." Talim said staring in the direction where my future self was. I nodded in agreement as I thought about what my future self said to Talim.

As I was headed back with the information that I gave myself, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, and had walked into someone. As we fell the contents of our bags spilled out onto the ground.

"I'm so sorry" We both apologized at the same time. We had started to pick up our stuff when she moved a pile of her spilled items, a large red tear shaped jewel had gotten my attention. 'oh shit!' I thought as I grabbed it and stuffed it back into my bag. I breathed a sigh of relief as I finally looked at the person I bumped into and I just stared. She had shoulder length brown hair and hazel eyes. She wore a yellow and orange jacket bound with a brown belt around her waist. Her tan pants were tucked into her traveler's boots and each boot had a blue gem. A small dagger could be seen sticking out of her jacket. I found my self stuttering she reminded me of my first love back on earth... At that thought I became depressed even though my future self said that I might get back.

"Are you OK?" she asked when she noticed that I had become slightly depressed.

"I'm fine. Just something on my mind. Oh let me introduce myself, my names Max." I extended my hand in a friendly manner

"I'm Eran." she shook my hand with a strength I didn't expect. Noticing the many calluses on her hand I could tell that she traveled a lot in her lifetime.

"I-its nice to meet you." I stuttered.

"What's wrong? Haven't you seen a pretty girl before?" she said with a smirk on her face.

"Not as pretty as you." I said without thinking.

"So are you going to ask me out or what?"

"Your quite direct aren't you?"

"Have to be. since just about every available guy gets snatched up by the Desians." she shifted her weight looking a little impatient.

"Well... I guess I'm free at the moment. Let me clean this mess up, and join you for lunch." I'm such a smooth talker /end sarcasm

"Kay."

"By the way how did you know that I was single?" I asked as I finished picking up our stuff.

"A strange man, wearing a jester's mask told me." when she told me this I had the "deer in the headlights" look. I shook it off and headed to lunch with Erin.

I returned to the Inn, late in the day, and walked into a strange scene. Collette was tending to a badly bruised Lloyd as Genis and Eir were trying to out due each other with kendamas. Raine was reading her books and the notes she jotted down during our conversation. Kratos was eying me with suspicion. He said something to me as I passed. "Do not mess with forces you do not understand." Did he notice that I had acquired another Devil's Arm? Or was it something else? I decided to question him about it, but when I turned to talk with him, he had already turned and was walking out the door. Deciding that I was too tired, or lazy, to chase after him. I decided to retire to my room that I rented that morning, after giving thanks to Raine for letting me stay in their room. As I entered I was instantly knocked over.

"Master!" Talim cheered as she glomped me.

"What's gotten into you?" I said as I peeled the sword spirit off of me.

"I found this bottle of liquid and it looked tasty so I had some."

"You can eat?" I asked as she handed me the empty bottle.

"Yup. Only when I want to." she said as she pulled out a filled bottle and began to drink. I finally looked at the empty bottle, in my hand, and was just short of face palming. The label said Palma Potion.

* * *

"Max"

"Yes. Thirteen?"

"Was it really wise to tell your past self all that?"

"It was necessary."

"Was it also necessary to let your self get stabbed by the soul eater?" a third voice came from around the corner.

"Ah Ariel. Having fun keeping Mathew under control?" I said.

"I don't understand how you knew where he would go. Half the time I have to send some scout to search for him." she said as we walked over.

"Speaking of scouts. Report." I said as we continued down the alleyway towards the harbor, where I had a transport waiting.

"OK OK save pleasantries for later. From what I have observed the time line has not been altered much, but just enough for the plans to work."

"Good good. Where is everyone else?"

"Back in the future."

"Ha...ha... very funny Mrs. Ka-Fai"

"Speaking of the future. What happened back there? I know it wasn't the wound from the devil's arms." Thirteen said.

"They're growing again." when I said this Ariel and Thirteen got instantly worried. "It is the end result of the choice I made, and I will accept it"

"Now then Thirteen, its been two years. Dose this place remind you of anything?" I asked eying him carefully. He looked around at the buildings and the harbor and shook his head.

"He still doesn't remember?" Ariel whispered to me. I just nodded in response.

"it's been three years trying to rebuild his memory. We've made progress but not much." I said before a noise from the alley that had gotten my attention.

"I believe we have overstayed our welcome." I said with paranoia kicking in.

"Right" Ariel and Thirteen said. I raised my hand and said a quick spell. A bright light engulfed us as we teleported to our next location

* * *

Max: Hello all you happy readers.

Mike: What are you doing?

Max: Greeting our readers.

Mike: Why?

Max: I just wanted to ask for a little help.

Mathew: For?

Max: As you saw in my first chapter I have twelve generals leading my armies. So far I only came up with a handful of OCs to fill the slots.

Mike: You still have plenty of time to make some more.

Max: I know but I'm busy.

Mike: With?

Max: Stuff.

Mathew: Like?

Max:(mumbles) World of Warcraft... the cataclysm is coming...

Mathew: I don't believe I understood that.

Max: It's not anything important to tell people so yeah. So (turns to the readers) will you take up my offer of power and wealth? Or do you want more?

Mathew: And how many have you made?

Max: Two... (turns away and starts to laugh darkly)

Mike:What now- (sees the remote in Max's hands) NO!

Max: Too Late! (presses fast forward button) HA HA HA! Next chapter will reveal some of the things I have planed for my takeover.

Max: And one more note. While writing this chapter I went back and extended Kratos' and Talim's fight in chapter five. I'll probably go back and change things in my previous chapters.

Mike: until next time.

Mathew: leave a review on which chapter I should revamp.


	8. Peek into the Future

Max:(Slams head on the desk) Fifth!

Mike:What?

Max: This is the fifth rewrite of this chapter!

Mike: Well you were drunk at one point.

Max: Probably how a came up with that pairing. Don't see much of that.

Mike: Oh that pairing. Ya I haven't seen much of that either. But then again this is the Internet. So it happened somewhere.

Max: Hey where's Matthew?

Mike: He off doing his thing right now.

Max:Oh dear God!

Mike:No. The other thing.

Max:Oh. At least it's a lot less bloody...

Max: Thank You to Storyteller of Darkness on letting me use some of his characters, Phos and Scott. And your advice.

There are still a few more open spots for my military command.

Mike: RadonMax does not own Tales of Symphonia or the tales studio.

Max: If I did I would have had Tales of Graces localized.

* * *

"Damn... Damn it!.. DAMN IT!" I shouted as a temporal portal shut behind me. I had arrived back in the future, about twenty years from when the worlds were put back together. The area around me shook, with my frustration, but I was too upset to notice.

"What's wrong?" Auburn eyes peered out from a violet helmet, looking at me curiously. A woman clad in a violet brigandine stood before me. She had two swords strapped to her side. The swords had a strange design on each pommel, like they could connect and from one weapon. Her long dark brown hair was tied into a ponytail and hung out from the back of her winged helmet.

"I couldn't save him; No matter what I did; Every single instance; he died." I whispered mostly to myself. I took off my mask and threw it to the side.

"Save who?" she asked as she shifted her weight.

"Thirteen." I had calmed down trying to collect my self.

"What do you mean? He's still alive; He's doing drills right now."

"Yes, he is alive right now, but that's not his original body. It's only a copy. The only thing I was able to do was secure the payment." I let out a sigh as I ran my hand through my hair. "Is Phos ready with his operation?" I had more pressing issues to handle then my failure to change history.

"I don't know and I don't care. He's not my responsibility." she said as she turned and walked haphazardly away.

"I really don't understand Jun at times." I shook my head and made my way towards Phos' dwelling.

* * *

Phos' home was elegantly crafted marble, that was unusually dark. Upon arriving, a horrible smell filled the air and got stronger as you approached the building, the two guards were easily noticeable as they stood next to the main door. These guards aren't the normal ones, that the generals had personally selected, but rotting horrors. Reanimated bodies was not something new to me. I knocked on the door and one of his servants opened the door.

"Good evening James. I have come to speak with Phos." I greeted his butler.

"Good evening Lord Max. Master Phos is in the study." I thanked James and made my way into the house. When one would enter Phos' house they might expect the scent of decay due to his guards, but the fragrance of tea filled the halls. James led me down a large hall and stopped in front of a large door.

"The master is inside." He gave a bow and went on his way to finish his tasks. Opening the door the scent of tea grew stronger and I could hear Phos talking to himself.

"Fine teas, from the Fuji mountains, must be enjoyed in a cup, that has been fired in a kiln with wood from Ozette, fueling the fire." Phos was wearing a dark blue robe as he held a beautifully crafted cup in his hand.

"Indeed." was all I said to get his attention.

"Lord Max. May I inquire the reason for this visit?" he placed his cup down on a small table with a device, that looked like a French press, holding his steeping tea.

"I am just making sure that the preparations for the attack complete."

"The troops are on standby and are waiting for my command."

"Good. One more thing. Those are not your usual guardian creations."

"It's a new spell I learned from this book." Phos held out an old book. The pages were worn from age as the bindings looked like it would fall apart at any moment.

"Where did you get your hands on this book?" I asked eying the cover. I noticed that there were faded letters that read Legionna-, but that was all I could make out.

"I had stolen it from a man." He placed it back on the table, next to his tea.

"I see." I gave a nod and contemplated the origins of the book. "You may commence your attack when your ready. But don't be late. I'll be in Palmacosta if you need me." I turned and was headed out the door.

"As you wish." I heard him say as I exited the room.

* * *

Phos' house stood like a mirror image to my next destination, across the street. This house instead of having rotting horrors, it had normal guards and the marble was a brilliant white. In the back a large graveyard could be seen, as two workers were digging out a fresh plot.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I HAVE EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE?" roared a voice from the house.

"Mental note. Get Scott another psychologist." I mused out loud as I headed towards the front door. Hesitantly, I knocked on the door. "Five" I started to count down.

"GET THE DOOR!" I heard Scott yell again.

"Four"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT YOUR PREOCCUPIED?"

"Three" I could hear stomping from the other side. "Two" The guards next to the door had already fled when they heard the stomping get to the door. "One" The door flew open and hitting the wall almost knocking it off it's hinges.

"WHAT?" Scott yelled at me. He looked just like his twin brother except his hair and eyes were orange as his clothing was snow white.

"Zero" I said as his eyes changed from rage filled to ones that looked like they found a friend, that they haven't seen in a long time.

"Max!" he chirped as he glomped me. Perfect timing again. I seem to have been able to tell when his mood will change. The doctors still could not tell the type of Bipolar disorder he has.

"Hello Scott. Are you doing well?"

"Well..." he avoided my gaze while he hung onto me.

"I'll have another psychologist sent to you tomorrow." I said with a sigh.

"Yay!" he still didn't let go of me just gripped me tighter. Letting out another sigh I entered his house, with him hanging off of me. After finally pealing him off of me, I had started to disucss the plans for the invasion and for his men backing up his brothers forces. After several hours of him changing the subject I had finally finished talking about the plans. Knowing I had a small amount of time left, I said my good byes and headed to Palmacosta. Just as I left I could tell that his emotions had changed again. Seeing that a desk flew by my head, and embedded its self into a wall, was kind of a giveaway.

* * *

Boom!

The loud explosion had woken me from my sleep. Hastily I looked out the window, of inn room I had rented, only to find the city of Palmacosta ablaze. I calmly put on my clothing and armor. When I grabbed my steel sword I muttered to my self with disgust, 'Its running behind schedule.' I quickly ran outside and was confronted by the Palmacosta militia.

"Quickly! You have to get to the har-" he was cut off by a sword piercing his torso. The dieing soldier's eyes pleading that I run, but I ignored him and was paying attention to the one who had stabbed him.

"Your late." I said with a disapproved tone.

"Who do you think your talking to? Your going to be dead in a few moments." he mocked. His uniform was a leather armor set that was dyed black and blue. A bloodied short sword was held loosely in his hand as he threatened me.

"You should be weary of whom you threaten." a solemn voice echoed throughout the alley. A wounded man approached, a sword still embedded in his torso. His hair was a brilliant sapphire that matched his blank eyes. His elegantly crafted sword rested in his hand and was still coated in the blood of his latest victim. He removed the sword from his torso and threw it aside. He healed his wound with a small bit of magic, as he stopped in front of us.

"General Phos!" The soldier quickly took a step back, into my waiting hands. With a simple backhand I had embedded him into the nearest wall. With a small grumble I finished adjusting my armor and put on a jester mask. The others were recovering from the shock of seeing their comrade easily taken down, by one man. They were eager to strike me down, but Phos held out his hand to stop them.

"My apologies for being late, Lord Max." When he spoke my name, every soldier in hearing distance paled and stood in attention. "We had run into some complications."

"What might those complications be?" I tightened my gauntlets waiting for his explanation.

"Renegades and the Vanguard." Two years after I had conquered the world the Renegades, switched from attacking cruxis to me, and Vanguard, were formed as a rebellion to my empire. I didn't care at first, because I knew who the leaders were and I had bigger fish to fry. That's a story I'll save for later.

"Were they taken care of?" I surveyed the remaining troupes. A few of the guards had gone over to the one who I had knocked into the wall. They were taking him to be healed.

"Of course." He gave a curt nod.

"Good. Things need to be done properly if he is to be born tonight."

"Are you sure it's a good idea to let him be reborn?"

"Yes." I quickly looked at the invasion force and noticed something. "Wheres your brother?"

"I don't know. He was next to me when we left the city."

"Never mind then. I probably know where he is." I said as red flash filed the skies. In a hidden room several tear-shaped jewels started to resonate and pulse as if they were expecting some thing or some one, to come get them. "Lets go." I beckoned Phos and his men to follow me. After some blocks we came across a boy in his late teens. He had dirty blond hair with emerald-green eyes. He wore a lab coat and was wandering lost. "You, escort him to Luin. Make sure he gets to the Castagnier family." I pointed to a seemingly random soldier. He saluted and did what he was told. "Phos, You may finish the invasion now. If you need me you know where to find me."

"Of course" he took out a strange-looking device and placed it to his lips. The device let out a loud whistle and a moment later a deafening roar could be heard in the distance. That night the waters of Palmacosta were stained red with blood, as monsters ransacked the houses and killed anyone they encountered.

* * *

The obsidian walls of a tower, I had built as the crown jewel of my empire, reflected the light of early dawn. It was surrounded by an ivory city and casted a glow from the reflection of the sun. Entering the main gates Phos and I led his troupes to the heart of the ivory city then went our separate ways. I arrived back to my personal quarters, within the palace at the city's heart, going over the events of the night. I gone to my bathroom and peered in the mirror. I removed my contact lenses. The brown lenses sat in my hand as I watched the person in the mirror. Indigo eyes looked back as jet black hair hung loosely. Over the years I had slimmed down and no longer looked overweight. A knock on my door shook me from my stupor. I promptly opened the door and found one of the city's angels.

"My lord. Here is the report you requested." he handed me a few sheets of paper with some miscellaneous information. On the third page something caught my eye. The containment unit I had placed, on the lowest area of the tower, had started to deteriorate. It had dropped down to seventy percent power in less then a day. 'It's now or never.' I thought to my self. I dismissed the angel and changed my clothes. I entered the throne room, some time later, and sat down on the throne. On the arm of the gold and violet throne was a hidden panel, that controlled some of the traps, secret passages, and other things. Pressing a few buttons the the center of the intricate designed floor opened up to reveal a teleportation device. Taking the pad lead halfway up the former tower of salvation. The structure had shattered halfway up as a large sphere of mana hovered in the space created, with rubble orbiting it slowly. The level right under the sphere was the spirit chamber. When entering the chamber the first thing that was noticeable is that the chamber was subdivided into an elemental room. Each room had a tear-shaped jewel, of corresponding color, and a summon spirit encased in a dark sphere. Each spirit had dark chains covering their respective bodies and a lifeless look in their eyes. There were a few exceptions. A warm laughter filled the room as I entered.

"Ho, Ho, Ho, Ho. Look whose come to visit. The Jester King himself." The Jester King. It is that title that I was known for, mostly because of my use of jester masks during public outings.

"Good evening. Maxwell. I've come with the payment."

* * *

It was late in the after noon as I returned from my meeting with Maxwell. I had paid off the debts I had to the spirit, for use of his abilities, and was looking over the latest news.

"Nothing..." I said as I scanned the articles for anything exciting. The only one that had gotten a part of my attention was the report of my invasion of Palmacosta. "This is starting to get dull. The Renegade and Vanguard's movements were becoming easily predictable." The raid of Palmacosta would be an example. I had a suddenly had an idea.

"That idea is mad." a voice from the other side of the room echoed.

"Reading my mind again? Mathew." Mathew appeared out of the shadows of the room wearing his mask.

"Being who I am? Are you really that surprised?"

"Your right. But is it really that mad? The rebellion is starting to get dull." Looking back on this statement, I would agree with Mathew.

"You banished them your self. Do you really want them to come back?"

"Yes." I set the news paper in my hand on fire and watched it burn.

"You know that it's been several years since then?" The ashes of the burnt news papers collected on the floor. With a snap of my fingers the ashes formed a small orb.

"Yes" I picked up the orb and thew it into the fireplace, where several hundred other orbs lay.

"Do you know how you'll get them back?" Mathew stood there with his arms crossed awaiting my answer.

"No, but I will have them find a way back."

"How?"

"You'll see. Tell one of the servants to prepare my transport."

"Yeah Yeah" Mathew said as he disappeared into the shadows and I prepared for my travels.

'I should bring Gelu with me.' I thought to my self.

* * *

The small town of Grinnel bustled with life as the people had started their morning routine.

"Naomi! Wake up! Your going to be late." a raven haired woman yelled trying to wake her daughter. A small girl, about the age of thirteen, laid sprawled in her bed and was awoken by her mother's calling. She slowly got up and swept her brown hair from her face. Groggily she walked to the bathroom to get ready. She opened the door and found her father shaving.

"Dad... I have to get ready." she said as she pushed against his side.

"Ok. Ok." He said as he finished. He set down the razor and combed back his hair. Her father had a muscular build as was known around town for his crafting abilities. She quickly pushed out her father and closed the door as got ready. She quickly put on her red short-sleeved shirt, her light purple arm gloves, black pants, and shoes. She had tied her hair into a ponytail as she rubbed the sleep from her auburn eyes. She grabbed her bag and quietly headed downstairs. Her parents sat around a Japanese style table and was having a simple breakfast of eggs and toast.

"Do you think we should tell her?" she heard her mother ask, causing her to stop on the stairs.

"I think so, but... You really should come and eat, Naomi." her father said as he looked at the stairwell.

"How did you know I was there?" Naomi asked as she entered the dining room.

"Your still a little noisy." he said as he took a bit out of his food.

"How can you hear me? I can sneak up on mom, but not you?" this caused her parents to pause in the middle of a bite.

"Because I'm your father." he finally said as he watched his daughter inhale her breakfast.

"You may have inherited my sneaking abilities but you have your fathers appetite." her mother said as she shook her head.

"I'm going now" they heard her yell from the front door. Her parents looked at the seat where she was a second ago and saw that it was already cleaned. An after-image slowly disappeared where she was sitting. When they knew that she had left for school, they continued their conversation.

"I think that its time that we tell her about Sylvarant and Tethe'alla" he said.

"But Lloyd, should we tell her about Max?"

"I think we should leave that out, Sheena. She doesn't need to know about that bastard." He let out a sigh as he got up. "I still can't believe he's the one that did it."

"I thought we had this conversation already. It's hard to believe, but we're here on Earth. What other proof do you need?"

"Your right. But I cant help but think that there's a way to get our Max back. I mean he can't be all bad."

"But Lloyd, you saw what he did. He destroyed those cities." It could be easily seen that Sheena was holding back her emotions.

"Yes he did and he ruined my organization!" a voice said from the front door.

"That's probably the one thing we're thankful for, Mithos." Sheena said.

"If I still had a fragment of my former power I'd make you pay- OW!" he was interrupted by a smack on the back of his head.

"I thought we had this conversation before. You can't hurt our friends. Especially since they saved your life." a blond woman in a white and blue dress appeared. She was shorter than Mithos by a head but they looked almost like they were related.

"Yes dear." Lloyd and Sheena snickered at the former cruxis leader. Which he returned with a glare.

"Oh! Collette, don't tell me that it's time for the reunion?"

"I told you last night." Sheena said as she finished off her food. The adults continued their conversation as three kids made their way towards school.

"Hey Ryan. Can I copy your homework?" Naomi asked a blue haired kid.

"If you don't do it your self, you'll never learn anything." he responded. Ryan was taller than Naomi by two inches. His blue hair was cut short but was long enough to hide his slightly pointed ears. He wore a green shirt and blue pants. His book bag was overflowing with books.

"But if you let us copy your home work it'll help us learn. Right Gabriel?" She said as she grabbed a blond-haired boy.

"R-Right." Gabriel wasn't really paying attention to the conversation as he was staring at the clouds. Gabriel was the shortest of the three, he wore a white and green shirt with blue pants. His blond hair was long enough to be put into a small ponytail. Their conversation was slightly cut short as they encountered a boy who was crying on the edge of the street. He was wearing a blue shirt and black pants. An old scar ran up his right arm as his black hair hid his face.

"Hey. Are you alright?" the kid doesn't respond to Ryan's question but shakes his head.

"What's wrong?" Naomi asked.

"I-I'm s-suppose to get to school... but I-I don't know w-where I am."

"Which school do you go to?" Naomi handed him a tissue that she found in her pocket. He took the tissue and wiped his face.

"I-I go to General Assembly." Ryan, Naomi, and Gabriel looked at each other before responding.

"We go there too. Come on we'll take you." Naomi said.

"Really?" he cheered up almost instantly.

"Yeah. By the way I haven't seen you before. What grade are you in?" Ryan asked.

"I'm in the seventh grade. Actually I'm transferring from Green River." the boy said as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Were in the same grade then." Gabriel chirped. "Sorry" he quickly apologized when he saw that he was getting strange looks from the group.

"I'm Naomi Aurion. This is Ryan Bryant and Gabriel Yggdrasil." she introduced every one.

"I'm Matthew Lavio. Nice to meet you." The four headed to school chatting with their new friend, not noticing the shadow that watched them.

* * *

"Aurion, Bryant, Yggdrasil, and Lavio. My lucky day." I said as I watched the children from the shadows.

* * *

Max: So many questions. Yet no answers. (twisted laughter)

Mike: So your going to kidnap the kids?

Max: Damn it how did you guess?

Mike: Its quite obvious.

Max: Anyways. Leave a review and or an OC that you'll let me use. I have 3 spots left for now.

Max: One last thing. Happy New Year!


	9. Peek into the Future part 2

Mike: Happy New year everyone!

Max: You have weird ideas you know.

Mike:Why thank you.

Max:(Shakes head) Why am I using some of his ideas...

Mathew: Cause it's kinda twisted.

Max: Which is quite unexpected coming from you.(Points at Mike)

Mike:(A halo could be seen on his head) Why do you say that?

Max:(Rips the halo off Mike's head and pushes back his hair, revealing two sharp points) Your horns are showing.

Mike:Heh... Heh... Heh... Not just mine...

Mathew:...

Max:(eye twitch) I'm almost afraid to ask what you two have done?

Mike Mathew: (mischievous chuckle)

Max: Forget I even asked. You (points to Jun) say the disclaimer.

Jun: What why me?

Max: You're the first person I saw.

Jun: Bull.

Max:I'll give you a cookie.

Jun: Fine. RadonMax Does not own Tales of Symphonia. Scott and Phos are owned by StorytellerOfDarkness. (Nibbles on cookie)

* * *

Ring! Ring!

"Lloyd can you get the phone?" Sheena called to Lloyd from the bedroom. She was examining herself and placed a hand on her bulging midsection. Her second child was due to arrive any moment.

Ring! Ring!

"Got it." he picked up the phone and started to talk with the person on the line. Halfway during his conversation he paled and found it hard to talk.

"Lloyd, who is it?" Sheena asked from the bedroom. When he didn't respond she got worried and came down the stairs. She went over to the phone to see if Lloyd was still talking with whoever called. When she arrived the phone was on the floor, as several blue-green feathers were also scattered on the ground.

"Hello? Hello?" she could hear that the person was still on the line waiting for a response. She quickly raced over to the phone and picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Mr. Aurion are you still there?" The caller had a deep, somewhat soothing, voice.

"Were you talking with Lloyd earlier?" Sheena asked confused by Lloyd's sudden disappearance and the amount of feathers scattered on the ground.

"Yes I was. Are you Mrs. Aurion by chance?"

"Yes I am."

"Do you know where your husband went?"

"No."

"He didn't tell you before he left?"

"No"

"Then you may want to sit down." the man calmly said.

"Why?"

"I have some important news for you."

"Why would I need to sit down?"

"General Assembly school was attacked today, around noon. Several of the children have gone missing." When she heard this she almost dropped the phone.

"What about Naomi?" she yelled into the phone.

"I'm sorry. We have people searching for them as we speak." She froze and slumped onto the ground, holding back her worries. She realized where Lloyd had gone. He had gone to the school to try to find their daughter. That moment Mithos had burst through the front door.

"Where's Lloyd? I sensed that someone used a spell." When she didn't respond he went over and grasped her shoulders. He was about to try to talk to her, when he felt something in the air. It was a sensation he hadn't felt in years. Mana. Not the small amount of mana from a tree, Max had planted to sustain them, but a potent amount filled the air. He winced in pain as his body tried to absorb as much of it as it could. This caused his wings to emerge as he felt a fraction of his former power return. The mana in the air suddenly started to fade just as fast as it appeared. He had to find the source before it completely disappeared.

"Sheena, if Collette comes here to look for me, tell her that I know where Lloyd is and I'm going to help him." Mithos stood and focused on the fading mana, using it as a guide to where he would warp to. When he arrived he found Lloyd in a fisticuff battle with a heavily armored person, broken weapons strewn across the battle field. Using Lloyd's attacks as a distraction Mithos formed a ball of mana in his hand and blasted their attacker. The blast had knocked him back about ten feet, he landed somewhat gracefully in front of a tree. Without any hesitation, he quickly turned and hit the tree at its base and broke it. As it fell he grabbed it and threw it at Lloyd and Mithos. Thinking quickly Lloyd grabbed one of the discarded weapons on the ground and split the large projectile.

"Lloyd look out!" Mithos yelled as the mysterious warrior appeared behind him. Lloyd quickly elbowed the guy on his helmet stunning him for a bit. The stun was long enough for Mithos to unleash his attack.

"Yggdrasil Laser!" a bright beam was emitted from the former cruxis leader and hit the man head on. The powerful blast had knocked the man deep into the forest, surely to be lost.

"W-Who was that?" Mithos gasped. The attack was potent but had used up a large amount of mana that he had gathered.

"Not now. Look!" Lloyd pointed off towards a part of the forest ahead of them. Using their angelic abilities they saw a pack of large black and blue wolves dragging people. Seeing who the people were, sent Lloyd and Mithos into a panic. Naomi, Gabriel, Ryan, Matthew, and several other children were being dragged by the wolves deeper into the forest. With out a word the two rushed towards the wolves. The sudden attack had taken the wolves by surprise. They had dropped their burdens and took off towards the denser part of the woods.

"Careful, they might come back." Lloyd said as he watched the creatures vanish into the shadows of the trees.

"They seem to have only a few cuts and bruises. Overall the kids are fine." Mithos said as he examined the children. Mainly his son. He had quickly taken note of the metal cuffs on all the children's left hands.

"Good. We need to find a way to get them to safety. The wolves might return any moment now." Lloyd said as he picked up some of the children and sat them against some trees.

"How are we going to get them back? The two of us are not strong enough to carry them back, without hurting them." Mithos said as a large wave of mana suddenly washed over the group. "Strange. I better make use of it then." with that he gathered the mana around them and warped everyone out of the forest.

* * *

When they had warped away, a darkened figure stepped out from behind a tree. Just as the armored man approached him.

"Have they all been equipped?" the figure asked.

"Yes they have. They will find it soon enough." the heavily armored person responded with a bow.

"Very good Gelu. Call the wolves and I will head to the next destination. I'll call you when I need you." With a wave of his hand a portal opened before him. A large amount of mana spilled from the newly opened portal.

"Dose that happen every time?" Gelu asked as he was stabilizing himself to the flow of mana, coming from the portal.

"Yes it does, since its source is anchored in Sylvarant." the figure reached up and adjusted his mask. Just then a white and green creature sprang out of the portal. This caught them by surprise. "You know that's not a bad idea." he masked figure said. "Have fun" he said as the creature dashed off into the forest.

"Is that really a good idea Max?" Gelu asked. I could only chuckle.

"Yes. And he will prove to be a good distraction."

"If you don't mind me asking. Why did you wait a year before putting your plans in action?"

"Timing is everything. Now I need to get to my destination on time." I said as I entered the portal. Gelu nodded and let out a sharp whistle. The wolves came running by him and jumped into the portal. He took a glance around before entering.

* * *

the world seemed to spin as Lloyd and the children appeared behind the hospital. A thud had gotten his attention and turned to see what had happened. He saw Mithos had collapsed and was barely breathing.

"Mithos!" Lloyd shouted as he ran over to his friend.

"I-I'm... f-fine" he barely stuttered "I us-used too much... mana. Just... let me... rest." with that said he lost consciousness. Lloyd gritted his teeth and looked around. He perked up when he noticed that they were at the hospital. He quickly got up and ran inside to get help. In moments a team of doctors and nurses came out the check on the children and Mithos' condition. Later that day he was sitting next the bed where his daughter was sleeping. A loud howl had woken him from his deep thoughts, on what the strange-looking wolves were doing, and had gotten his full attention.

"Mr. Aurion?" A nurse appeared in the door way.

"Yes?"

"You're the husband of a Mrs. Sheena Aurion correct?"

"Correct. Why did some thing happen to her?" a look of worry quickly spread across his face. First his daughter gets kidnapped and now something might have happened to Sheena.

"She had gone into labor a few hours ago, she was rushed here when it started."

"Really?" Lloyd was filled with excitement and worry at the news. A noise from the bed had split Lloyd's attention.

"Congratulations you have a healthy boy."

"Dad?" Naomi was looking exhausted as she looked for her father. She was too tired to notice the metal band attached to her wrist.

"Naomi! Your awake." Lloyd had pulled his daughter into a tight hug.

"Dad... can't... breath..."

"Oh. Sorry. Guess what?"

"What?" Naomi said as she tried to catch her breath.

"You have a younger brother." Lloyd could barely hold his excitement in. Nothing could bring him down. So he thought. A disturbance could be heard in the hall as Sheena appeared in the door way, completely out of breath. She had ripped out her IVs, the wires that were used to monitor her were dangling off of her, and looked completely exhausted.

"Lloyd!"

"Sheena! What are you doing? Your suppose to be resting." Lloyd ran over to his spouse and tried to support her.

"Max!" She forced her self to say.  
"What?" Lloyd had a worried and confused expression. How could Max be here? They were on Earth and he was in the other world.

"Max! H-He was here! He took Alex!"

* * *

Earlier

I had secured my target from the hospital nurse and was making my way out of the hospital. I figured that the nurse wouldn't be able to recognize me. So I casually took care of my business. I ended up passing a room with a familiar looking person resting in the bed, since the door was open we could see each other. I gave Sheena a smirk as I passed. Her eyes lit up in recognition of who I was; then in horror as she realized what I was carrying, in my arms. "NO!" I heard her yell as I vanished from her line of sight. I knew that in her current condition she wouldn't have been able to chase after me. So I made my way to the exit, and to add a little more spite, I waved at the security camera. Once I was out of the hospital I made my way towards the woods south of the town.

* * *

By the end of the day I had reached the heart of the forest.

"This is a good spot." a shadowy limb materialized behind me, and at my whim had cleared a segment of the forest before me.

"Now then..." I raised my free hand and pointed towards the forest. Where I pointed the world started to warp out of figure. It bent and twisted before it formed a portal. As soon as it opened I could feel the mana rush out of it and into the world. After some time getting use to the surge of mana, I was about to step through when I heard someone behind me.

"Holy Lance!" I had jumped back in time for me to see the ground, where I was standing, get skewered by several beams of light.

"I don't think your going anywhere with that child." A woman's voice said. I turned around and faced my attacker.

"Hello Raine. It's been quite a while." I said with a smug look on my face. She just glared at me as she held her staff, ready to strike.

"Crescent Moon!" again I had just barely dodged an attack.

"Hello Regal." I dodged another of Regal's attacks as the child stirred in my arm. "Careful, you don't want to wake him." I said with a twisted smirk on my face.

"What do you want with that child?" Raine questioned me as she charged an attack.

"Oh nothing. I just got bored." I said as I dodged Raine and Regal's attacks.

"Your sick." Raine shouted at me.

"Your right. I've been better before." I jested at her insult.

"You will answer our questions." Regal said just as he hit me. I staggered a bit and checked on the child. He had to remain healthy for my plans to follow through. I had an adversary to raise.

"Don't you have more important things to worry about? Like your son currently in the hospital?"

"Collette and Presea are watching him for us." when Raine said that. It kinda caught me off guard and open for another attack.

"You and Regal are married?" I said as I pointed at her.

"Indeed we are" Regal said as he tried to land another hit on me.

"Congratulations on your partnership. I'd love to stay and chat some more, but I have a world to rule." I easily stopped Regal's attack with my hand. Quickly I checked and saw that the child I held onto was still sleeping. I griped his leg and threw him into the air. I instantly made a beeline to the open portal. I dodged another volley of Raine's attacks. "If you want to play a little more, I can arrange it." I snapped my fingers and Gelu stepped out of the portal. "Entertain them for me. I have some business to finish."

"As you wish lord Max." With that I went through the portal, to the world I had remade.

* * *

"Now then. By lord Max's wishes." He pulled out a strange-looking whistle. "I am to 'Entertain' you." The sound the whistle produced seemed to reverberate with the portal, right behind him. The portal then split into three separate portals. A large wolf had stepped out of one of the portals, as a large green bird flew out another, and a golem rumbled out the last. "Shadow, Venus, Ingot. Entertain our friends." Without another word the wolf roared as it charged at Raine. It lunged at her. Regal had quickly intercepted and kicked its side, sending it flying into the trees. Raine said a silent thanks and took advantage of the mana pouring out of the portals and prepared a spell. Regal had charged at the large avian creature but had to dodge as the golem tried to strike him down. The impact of the golem's attack left a good-sized hole in the ground. Even in his advancing age Regal was still quite acrobatic, seeing that he was dodging attacks left and right from both the golem and avian creature. "Holy lance" Raine shouted as several spears of light fell from the sky and embedded themselves in the golem. Letting out a low rumble the golem fell to pieces. Regal gave a swift kick to the avian creature's neck causing it to break, it collapsed in a heap into the hole the golem had made.

"Now where is that wolf?" Raine said just before she saw it in the corner of her eye. The wolf had lunged at Raine. It far was too late for anyone to intercept the attack, she had braced for the impact of the creature. Just then something fell out of the sky landing on the wolf's head crushing its skull and killing the creature. Standing on the dead creature Lloyd surveyed the scene.

"Looks like I got here in time." he said with his goofy grin.

"Don't think you've won that easily." Gelu said as he blew into the whistle again. This time the portals merged back into one as no less than thirty monsters came out. They were followed by a gigantic dragon like creature. It's two heads searched back and forward each one looking for a meal to eat. "Similitude, Attack!" Gelu said before he disappeared into the portal.

"Get ready!" Lloyd said as he drew his swords. As if a silent signal went off, Lloyd and Regal rushed into the mob of monsters killing anything in their path while Raine supported them with magic and healing. What felt like a solid hour of fighting, fatigue had caught up to Regal and Lloyd was being overwhelmed by monsters. Lloyd suddenly froze and shouted "Everyone shields!" Just as everyone had put up their mana shields pillars of light came crashing down upon the mob of monsters killing them, until only the two-headed dragon was left. For some reason the dragon seemed to have resisted the attack. Using his advanced senses Lloyd noticed a small crystal embedded into the creature's chest. Thinking fast he rushed at the dragon while avoiding the fireballs that it shot off. Each attack that he dodged scorched the land and left a trail of destruction. The dragon quickly caught onto what Lloyd was trying to accomplish and set the land before it ablaze. Not wanting to risk being badly injured, Lloyd took one of his swords and had thrown it like a javelin. His sword had fully impaled the dragon, shattering the crystal in the process. When the crystal had shattered an energy field could be seen dissipating from the dragon.  
"I hope I get this right." Lloyd said as he reviled his wings and gathered the mana around him. "Struggle against these holy chains! Shining Bind!" A large magic circle appeared underneath him as the mana, he collected, erupted from the circle blasting the area around him. The dragon tried to defend its self, but the magnitude of Lloyd's attack ended up destroying it and a large portion of the forest, that stood behind it. The attack had left Lloyd close to unconsciousness, since there wasn't enough mana coming from the portal to sustain it, the attack ended up only being a fraction of its original strength. As they settled down after the attack Raine and Regal went to check on Lloyd, when they heard some shout out in pain. It was odd since the cry of pain came from above them. They wondered who it was for a moment until they saw Mithos flying behind Colette, who was gripping his ear.

"You almost hit them!" Collette yelled as she tugged on Mithos' ear.

"I said I'm sorry!"Mithos pleaded as they flew down to the group. The group had gathered to check for damages. Raine was the first to notice something odd.

"What the?" was all she said as she headed to the far edge of the clearing, where Gelu was standing. She reached out and touched something. Instantly the area where she touched rippled and revealed a swirling mass. The group quickly gathered around the portal not noticing the rustling noses coming form the bushes. A green and white creature quickly ran out of the forest. In a blink of an eye it had ran past the group and strait towards it's target.

"What-?" was all Lloyd said as he was quickly taken down by the creature.

"Lloyd!" everyone yelled as they ran to help their fallen friend. As they got closer, they noticed that there wasn't any signs of a struggle, and Lloyd was laughing.

"Ah-pbh-Noishe-get-geh-OFf!" This left them confused as they watched Noishe get off Lloyd and nuzzle him. "Its good to see you too, pal. But I need to find Alex." Lloyd's demeanor changed from being happy to serious as he turned to the group. "Where did Max go?"

"He took Alex into this portal." Raine said as she studied the swirling mass before her.

"I'll call the hospital and check on the kids and Sheena." Regal said as he pulled out his cell phone and dialed the hospital.

* * *

"You left a portal open for them? How stupid can you get!" Jun seemed perturbed when she found out about the portal.

"Heh Heh Heh. Would it ease your thoughts if I told you I did it on purpose?" I said.

"What?"

"It's simple I want them to chase after me... Right into my trap... Yeah my Trap." sweat could be seen on my brow.

"What trap? You haven't set anything up in the past year." Jun's tapping foot was echoing in the marble hallway.

"Are you sure? Besides in their current state, they pose no threat. Yet."

"Yet?"

"I've grown bored with the predictable movements of the Renegades and Vanguard. I thought that they could use some help, from some former heroes."

"Are you sure thats a good idea?" Jun said semi-distracted

"I hope it will give our enemies a fighting chance."

"Why do you want to give them a fighting chance? Why not just crush them?" every time she spoke she seemed to get irked more and more.

"Because it's important for them to have a strong force. So I can _kill_ some of my boredom. Eliminating a weak rebellion is not that exciting." I said with a sadistic smile growing on my face. The thought of the carnage I would inflict excited me. I quickly cleared my head of those thoughts. Maintain control Max maintain control.

"And what about this... Thing?" Jun was referring to the child she was holding for me as I looked at the clock tower.

"That _thing_ is very important, and _your_ going to watch him while I check on my projects."

"But-"

"No buts. Your going to watch him and that's final!" With that said I turned and headed towards what was left of the tower of salvation. I could hear Jun's cry of frustration from where I was headed, soon followed by crying, as Alex woke up.

* * *

I had gotten half way to the tower when a wave of pain washed over me. I griped the sides of my head, where most of the pain had focused. I could feel them, growing under my skin, little hard nubs had started to form, where I was gripping. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a few purple crystals. I could barely hold them as several had fallen onto the ground. I crushed one in the palm of my hand and felt myself absorb what was released. The pain subsided as the nubs shrank. "Damn. Why dose it seem to have a mind of it's own." I picked up the stray crystals and put them back in my pocket. Letting out a sigh I resumed my journey.

I reached the tower late in the day and the sun had started to set. It was difficult to tell time around the tower, since the sphere of mana constantly emitted light and would interfere with any kind of timekeeping device. Passing through the front door of the tower, one could feel that something wasn't right. The very entrance didn't seem to fit the expansive green room. As one would look into the infinite green space, that somehow was contained within the tower, a transparent walkway could be seen leading to a floating island. This was where Yggdrasil's alter, with all the former chosen, once stood. A large crystal could be seen hovering in the center. As I approached, the crystal opened up reveling a luxurious room.

I had entered the crystal and could hear it seal up behind me. In the center of the room a small sphere hovered, while runes skittered across its surface. I touched the sphere as the runes seemed to organize. I spun the sphere, in what looked like a random fashion, until all the runes lined up in a specific order. A holographic menu then appeared, above the sphere, with a list of numbers. If they saw this on earth people would barely recognize it as an elevator. Instead of pressing one number I hit several. '08''67''53''09' when I hit the last number the elevator started to descend.

The elevator came to a stop at an unlisted level. The door opened revealing two squads of angels guarding a large vault door. I dismissed the angels and opened the vault. Entering the darkened room my foot steps would echo loudly in the darkness. I stopped when I came across a small gem, hovering in the air. Lightly touching the jewel activated a large machine. As it whirred into activity, the lights came on illuminating the chamber. In the middle stood two cylindrical stasis pods. The protective covering was pulled into the floor bathing the room with a blinding light. Peering through the light a child could be seen floating in the stasis pod. His jet black hair was obscured by his radiant aureolin wings, which were wrapped around him like a blanket. The second shield had revealed pieces of a shattered sword suspended in the container. Pulling out a shard of metal, from my pocket, I placed it into the stasis pod that held the fragments. "Soon when I find all the fragments, you will be remade, Talim."

Realizing the irony of what I was doing, I just started to laugh silently. I was trying to reforge her almost like how Mithos was trying to resurrect his older sister. The difference was that I wasn't looking for someone to sacrifice, but a person with the skill to reforge her. My hunt had lasted over a decade and several different eras, but was unsuccessful. In the process I ended up taking control of all the major powers that governed the world, either by brute force or black mail. Or was it the hunger for power that drove me forward. Either way I kept taking over region after region. Soon I had the world under my control and could do anything I wanted.

I resealed the chamber giving one last look to Talim and the sleeping child. "When will the dream end?" echoed in my memory as the child vanished from my view.

* * *

Max: First off I know that Lloyd's Mystic Arte is Divine Justice/ Falcon's Crest. Bun in order to use those techs he has to have the eternal sword, which is currently in my possession. So I decided to give him his father's tech because it seems to fit.

Mike: Or you just like it.

Max:(Ignores Mike) Anyways I hope I entertained you with a little of my madness.

?: Madness?

Max, Mike, Mathew:(facepalm and throw the guy out a window.)

Max: Until next chapter, Take care.

Jun: Please leave a review. Max says I get cookies when he gets reviews. I promise I'll share!


	10. Peek into the Future part 3

Mathew: Ah distractions, distractions, distractions.

Max: Shut it Mathew.

Mathew: Well tell me what you were doing then.

Max: Reading...

Mathew: Reading what?

Max: Naruto...

Mathew: What?

Max: I'm kinda trying to catch up.

Mathew: What chapter are you on?

Max:189

Mathew:(eye twitch) That's a long way to go...

Max: I know. Now say the disclaimer. (pulls a slip of paper out of a hat) Naomi.

Naomi:(puff of smoke) How did I get here? Who are you?

Max: I'm Mathew and I teleported you.

Mathew: I'm Mike

Mike: I'm Max

Naomi: Right... RadonMax doesn't own Tales of Symphonia. Now send me back!

* * *

After countless attempts, and asking for help from others, Jun had finally gotten Alex to stop crying. He seemed to settle down when he was in a wooded area. Fortunately Jun had decided to reside in a semi-wooded area. This allowed her to step out into a forest, to calm the child. She had also gotten help from one of the monsters, that she raised, which was currently pregnant.

"So you've finally gotten him to settle down? I could hear his crying all the way from my house." mocked a voice coming from above her head.

"It doesn't help that you have angelic hearing, Ven." she retorted, in a whisper. Jun didn't want to wake the child, after all her hard work to get him to fall asleep. A female Fenrir slept next to her, as she cradled the child in her arms. The gentle flapping of wings could be heard as Ven approached.

"You look like you could be a good mother." Ven said as he landed before the odd group.

"Be quiet. It took me some time to get him to settle down. This little one isn't as easy to take care of, like Fushun here." Jun patted the sleeping Fenrir. "Besides I wish I could remember my mother." a sad look came upon Jun and Ven's faces.

"I know what you mean. How long has it been since Max found us." Ven said as he took a seat next to Jun.

"Around fifteen years. "

"Its been that long? It feels like it might have been longer." The sound of children laughing filled the air as Jun and Ven thought about their past. It had been strange Max had found them badly wounded in the middle of a forest. When they had recovered, there was only bad news, as they had lost their memories. Max thought it might have been trauma that caused it. Eir thought it was from the injuries. What made it odd was that they were found in front of their friend's grave.

"Yeah." they were pulled from their memories when Alex woke up and started crying. Jun let out a sigh as she tried to lull the child back to sleep. Fushun woke up from the crying and lifted her tail to the baby. Alex stopped crying as he started to laugh and play with the tail.

"Thanks Fushun." the creature laid its head back down knowing that the child would be happy playing with her tail.

"So when are the pups due?"

"They should be born some time next month."

"That's good. So who are they going to?"

"Some are going to the military. Some are going to be raised for special requests."

"I see. Do you mind if I have one of the litter?"

"I don't see why not." Just then an angel warped before them startling them.

"Lord Ven. Lady Jun." the angel bowed before them.

"Are you soulless?" asked Jun

"No my lady. I had my freedom returned to me during the first war."

"Good. I don't want any soulless angels to be around me. I find them pitiable."

"I understand." said the angel.

"So why are you here?" asked Ven

"I was sent here to tell you that Lord Max has asked, for you two, to meet him in the palace."

"And the child?" Jun asked as she moved Fushun's tail from the child, only to replace it with a bottle.

"He is to accompany you."

"Very well. When are we to meet him?"

"Tomorrow afternoon" with his message delivered, he gave the two a bow before flying off.

"I just had an idea. If you didn't think of it yet. I think the pup, that you said that I could have, should go to Alex." Ven said as he stood up.

"Why do you say that?" asked Jun

"By the looks of things. I don't think Max is going to give the child back. They would have to probably take him back by force." when ven said this Jun had a look of horror on her face.

"You mean I'm going to be stuck with this... this..." She wasn't able to finish her train of thought when Alex grabbed her finger and started playing with her. This caused her to let out a sigh and forget why she was mad. She then thought 'Maybe that wouldn't be so bad.'

"Well I guess I should get going." Ven said giving the three another look before taking off. Ven gave his wings a large flap as he took off. He didn't get far, as he flew straight into some branches, of the tree they were sitting under. He fell in front of Jun and Alex causing them to laugh. Just because he wasn't paying attention to where they were sitting. He dusted himself off and tried to salvage what little pride he had left and took off. Until he crashed into another angel.

* * *

Back on earth Raine was studying the portal, that was left open, while Regal was calling people on his phone. Lloyd had gone back to the hospital to check on his daughter and wife. Mithos and Colette also went back to the hospital.

"This is strange." Raine said as she put away her notes.

"What is?" Regal said as he approached.

"The other portals, when they were open, would have mana flowing out of them. This one dose not."

"What could that mean?"

"I'm not sure"

* * *

Naomi was looking out the window from the hospital bed she was sitting in. she was fiddling with the metal bracer, that seems to have been put on her while she was unconscious. She would be up wandering around if her father didn't tell her to stay in bed and rest. It was a clearday out and she was bored. Her room-mate would be the least likely candidate to help with boredom as Ryan was reading several books and taking notes.

"Why are you doing school work now?" Naomi asked, wanting to kill her boredom.

"I don't want to fall behind in class." Ryan said not even looking up from his history book. Naomi let out a sigh as she tried to entertain her self.

In the next room Lloyd, Sheena, Presea, Mithos, and Colette were having a discussion about the attack on the school, the strange portal, and the kidnapping of Lloyd and Sheena's second child. They were trying to convince Lloyd that jumping into the portal right now was not the best idea. Their discussion was interrupted by an ear piercing scream. Lloyd and Sheena recognized that it and rushed to Naomi and Ryan's room. They had arrived finding the room in complete disarray. With the fear of Max returning Lloyd and Sheena panicked and searched for their daughter. They found Naomi and Ryan against the far wall of the room as a noise had gotten their attention. On the other side of the room Noishe was struggling with the mess of wires and bedsheets, that he was tangled in.

"W-What is that thing?" Naomi said panicking.

"It doesn't look like any animal I recognize." Ryan added. Lloyd let out a sigh, as he went over to untangle his old friend, while Sheena returned to her bed.

"Dad be careful!" Naomi said as she hid behind Ryan.

"Noishe I thought I told you to wait in the forest." Lloyd finally managed to untangle Noishe, from the mess he was in, while he tried to lick Lloyd.

"Dad what are you doing?"

"Now. I thought I told you to wait for me in the woods." Lloyd said as he petted Noishe. "Might as well get this over with. Naomi come here and meet my old friend."

To say that she was nervous would be an understatement. Any child would be fearful of a six-foot, white and green, sharp toothed, probably could eat a child in one bite, unknown creature. Slowly she approached her father and the creature. When the creature didn't react, to Naomi's approach, her curiosity grew and got the better part of her. She reached out to touch it. Noishe let out a whine as he lowered his head down to let her pet him. She was amazed at how soft his fur was. Noishe let out another whine just before he licked her face causing her to fall back. Lloyd gave a slight smile before he noticed the metal cuff on his daughter.

"Naomi what is this?" Lloyd held onto the meal cuff that was currently on his daughter's wrist.

"I don't know dad. I found this on me when I woke up and I cant get it off. I was thinking that one of the doctors had put it on me until I asked one of the nurses. She told me that I had this on me." Lloyd was wondering when those were put on his daughter.

"Let me get some of my tools and I'll get those off of you." he turned to Noishe "And I'm taking you back to the forest" with that said he left and Noishe followed. Just as Naomi notices something.

"Great the room is still a mess. Nurse!" she turned around to look for Ryan and found him back to his books and notes. She twitched and left the room.

Lloyd returned, later that day, with some of his tools and was removing the metal a few moments the band had fallen to the floor followed by the tools.

"No..." was all Lloyd could say as he saw what it was hiding.

"Dad? What is that?" Naomi asked as she was staring at a red gem that was embedded in her skin.

* * *

Back at the portal Raine and Regal had to jump back as the portal seemed to quake and release mana, once again, as a figure came out of the portal, collapsing as soon as they emerged. The figure tried to look up facing Raine and Regal, who were in a defensive stance ready for an attack. The figure smirked before coughing up blood trying to speak.

"Is...This. Earth?" the voice was very week as Raine observed that this man had multiple wounds and a blade was sticking out the side of his leg.

"This is." Raine said cautiously ready for an attack.

"Did my team make it?" he barely asked

"You are the only one who emerged from the portal." Regal said while staring to the portal.

"Damn.. I mustn't fail this mission." the look in his eye started to distance as a puddle of blood was noticed forming under him. "I have a message... for the regeneration group-" He said before he lost consciousness. Raine and Regal looked at each other talking quietly before Regal nodded his head and Raine healed the stranger.

"I am Linier. Lieutenant of the first division of the Renegades. I thank you for healing my wounds." Linier was now mostly healed, he was now resting against a tree. Before he could be fully healed the portal stopped releasing mana and Raine's spells lost potency.

"A Renegade? What are you doing here on earth?"

"I am on a mission to deliver a message to the regeneration group."

"How do we know your not here for some sort of surprise attack?" Raine asked as Regal was again calling people to inform them of the visitor.

"I understand that it is difficult to trust me. I have some proof from the Renegade leader himself. This." the man held out a small locket "I was instructed to give this to Lloyd Aurion."

* * *

"My lord." an angel approached me as I was going over some paperwork.

"Yes?"

"Our security was breached, and a group of Renegades had infiltrated our facility." This had gotten my attention. This was a bold move but somewhat expected.

"What were they doing?"

"A small group of six headed to the portal chamber and activated a portal." Were they finally making a move?

"What happened?" i asked not looking up from my paperwork.

"We had killed five of the six, and wounded that last one, before he escaped into an unstable portal. After he entered the portal closed. We tried to give chase, but a bomb went off and destroyed the portal controls."

"I see." I let out a sigh "Start repairs on the portal chamber; bring me the head of security; and the Fourth... Oh and a mop"

"As you wish." The angel said with a bow before he left. Minutes passed as the door opened revealing a woman in red and black plate armor. She had long hair that started green from the top of her head and ended blue. Green leaves stuck out from behind her ears as she gave a deep bow.

"You called Max?" she said when she straitened up.

"Good evening Ariel, the Fourth general."

"Good evening. So what might you need me to do?" she asked

"I would like you to assign a new head of security." I signed a document about a new Psychologist for Scott.

"What happened to the previous head of security?" When she asked this I just pointed to an angel, mopping up a large blood splatter that covered the floor, wall, and ceiling. "Again..."

"Yup." I said not looking up from my paperwork "One other thing. I need you to redirect all the incoming portals to these coordinates." I said handing her a piece of paper.

"Alright. I'll take care of this and I'll see you later." she soon left and I finished off the rest of my paperwork. It had gotten dark when I finally made my way out of the office and towards my house. A sudden killing intent filled the air. I let out a sigh when I recognized who it came from. A slight whistling sound filled the air, as I spun around and grabbed six daggers, that were thrown at me. I threw them back at the assailant, each dagger grabbing a bit of cloth, pinning her against a wall.

"Good evening. First. You seem to be a bit bloodthirsty tonight." I said as I approached a small child. She had short blond hair that ended with an orange hue. Her vermilion eyes were a good contrast to her pale skin. Circuit board like marks covered most of her exposed skin, revealing the modifications to her body. She was only 13 when I added her into my military. She quickly ascended the ranks and made general in less than a year; by killing every ranking member above her.

"Good evening asshole." she was young and had a sailor's vocabulary. Where she got it? I don't know.

"heh heh. I get the feeling that you were bored." I pulled a bar of soap from my pocket and shoved it in her mouth. "Now what did I say about cursing?" she just glared at me spitting out the bar of soap.

"I can only curse on the battlefield." she said as she spat out what was left of the soap. She then tried to struggle and dislodge the daggers I pined her up with. This was going to take some time. So I decided that I would just let her go, as I had someone I had to visit. Of course she didn't leave me alone. Seeing that I dodged several more daggers. I grew a little irritated and quickly appeared behind her. I grabbed her arm and broke it. Instead of clutching her arm in pain she quickly turned and tried to stab me, with her good arm, as her other arm dangled uselessly at her side. Running low on time I quickly knocked her out. Not wanting to leave one of my generals in the middle of the street I called up one of her servents.

"Take Kana to her house and have her arm repaired." I said as I rubbed my hand. "And tell the Third that I need a report on all the modifications she made on Kana."

"As you wish" The white-haired servant responded. They picked up Kana and put her on a stretcher and took her home. When they left my line of sight I continued towards my next destination.

* * *

A few days had passed Naomi, Ryan, and Gabriel's condition had rapidly deteriorated. They went from running around and ready to be released from the hospital, to bed ridden and struggling to breath. From all the children who had exspheres embedded on them, only those related to the regeneration group were afflicted. The exspheres on the other children had fallen off. Raine had brought Linier to the hospital to continue questioning.

"What do you know about the exspheres!" Lloyd slammed Linier against a wall, barely able to control his rage.

"I don't know! I was just sent here to deliver a message to you!" Linier tried to yell back.

"Who sent the message? Was it Max?" Lloyd slammed his fist into the wall effectively punching through.

"NO!" Linier took a deep breath and prepared himself if Lloyd would hit him. "It was your father." When he said this Lloyd seemed to deflate. Linier pulled out a letter and the locket. "These are for you." Lloyd quickly took the locket and letter.

"You better not be lying." Lloyd said as he opened the letter.

"What dose it say?" Colette asked.

"I don't know I think its in angelic." Lloyd said as he looked at the paper.

"Here let me see." Mithos said as he reached for the paper. He took a quick look and handed it back to Lloyd. "Your reading it upside down."

"Oh."

_Lloyd._

_If you are reading this then the soldier had completed his mission. If this letter has gotten to you in time then I must warn you that Max plans to kidnap your child. The reason is still unknown why he would. He is also planning to attach several exspheres to some children. You must prepare for the worst. Max's mind has deteriorated from Mithos' experiment, but it seems that there is still some trace of his former self. The small fragment seems to just barely hold the madness in his mind in check. _

This bit of information had sparked a small hope in Lloyd.

_If this letter has come too late, Then you must come back with my soldier. If there are any children who have exspheres attached to them, you MUST bring them as well. It is the only way to save them. The reason is that the exspheres attached to the children, while on earth, will drain mana four times as fast. Steeling some information from Max's research, it had been determined that since earth does not have the excess mana, to replenish the supply in our bodies,the limited supply is quickly exhausted. I pray that it is not too late. _

_Don't die before I do._

_Kratos Aurion._

Lloyd placed the letter down and faced the soldier, anger still burning in his eyes. "So how are we going to get back?"

* * *

Max: HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Mathew:(slowly steps back)

Mike: So how many chapters for this arch?

Max: good question. I'm having fun being evil.

Mike: you're not that evil. It's quite mild.

Max: I'm just getting warmed up.

Mathew: You still need to finish the part of the story on how you became evil And such.

Max:(sigh) I'll get to that soon.

Max: Anyways I hope you enjoyed. Until next chapter, I'll see you then.


	11. Peek into the Future final part

Max: I'm Back.

Mathew: Great he's back. I thought you poisoned his food.

Mike: I did.

Max: Try a different poison next time. I could see it before I ate it. It was purple.

Mike:... Anyways why are you late this time?

Max: Ehh I got distracted and forgot about finishing this chapter...

Mike: really?

Max: No actually I was working on this in my spare time for an entire month. Ohwell.

Mathew: and how much spare time is that?

Max: Not much. Juggling two jobs and a twelve-hour work shift is hard. I think I already went crazy.

Mike:How so?

Max:Well I'm talking to you guys.

Mathew:Zing.

Max: Hmm...

Mike: What is it, this time?

Max: This. (points to a news entry)

Mike: huh. Tales of Graces is getting localized. Didn't you say something about this in one of your disclaimers?

Max: Yup. And now to end this arch with a bang!

RadonMax still does not own Tales of Symphonia, even though he said that if he owned namco he would have Tales of Graces localized. (which it is) And I don't own any music ether.

* * *

It was late in the evening when the group arrived at the twisting portal. Lloyd and Sheena lead the way. Naomi was riding on Lloyd's back. Regal was caring Ryan as Raine walked next to her husband. Colette was following Mithos, who was carrying Gabriel. Behind them Presea followed Zellos with their son Issac. Linier stopped and held out a strange device.

"This is the portal that will take us back to Veria." He said looking at the device.

"Veria?" Lloyd asked the question that was on everyone's minds.

"After Max left you on Earth, he renamed the planet Veria." after he said that he threw the device into the portal. He waited a moment before he tisked. "Damn a one way portal."

"What do you mean?" Raine asked.

"Max probably left this portal on purpose." he muttered to himself "It means that you have a choice. Do you stay here on Earth and avoid the conflict? Or do you go back to his world where he controls just about everything."

"Max left me with no choice. I'm going back." Lloyd said as he held his daughter. Sheena, Regal, Raine, Colette and Mithos all had the same thought.

"What about you two?" Linier asked Presea and Zellos.

"I promised Lloyd that I would help him. I am going as well." Presea said. Zellos looked like he was lost in thought, he looked at his son, before he responded.

"I honestly would prefer to stay on Earth. But I don't know if Max will come after all of us. I was lucky Issac was sick that day. I don't know if it would be safer on Earth or there."

"Wow Zellos, you actually sound like a responsible father." Mithos said just before Colette hit him.

"Ya and your whipped." Zellos said before Presea hit him followed by Sheena. Zellos muttered something about not being fair.

"How about I make that choice for you." Thirteen said as he appeared from the shadows, of the forest. He was followed by a platoon of soldiers.

* * *

I had gotten to my destination late in the evening. There was a slight chill in the air and scent of burning wood from a nearby house. I arrived at a modest estate. It wasn't lavish but wasn't too modest, it also had a homely feel to it.

Just as I was about to knock on the door, it opened.

"Good evening Lord Max." a well dressed butler addressed me.

"Good evening Commander." I responded. Being a butler was a good disguise for an elite guard.

"I shall go call her." He turned to leave but I stopped him.

"No need I'll go to her myself."

"As you wish. She is currently with her daughter." I nodded and entered the house. I wandered the hallways for a moment, admireing the decorations. I soon came to a door that was slightly opened, I heard her voice from the other side. She was singing.

_Sun and moon  
Day and night  
Darkness and the light_

_Comes and goes  
All so fast  
Nothing ever lasts_

_It seems I'm living in a place  
Forgotten now by time's pace  
So I'm left alone_

_You and i  
Hand in hand  
We have just begun_

_Somehow I'm  
Holding back  
What I feel for you_

_I'm always living with my fears  
The time is swiftly drawing near  
I'll be left alone_

_Our moments pass on by  
Then people pass on by  
And love keeps drifting away  
It all keeps drifting away_

_One day I'll be there  
Someday I'll be there  
End of this long and lonely road.  
There is a place where tenderness calls the Solitude a friend_

_No one is with me  
Nothing is with me  
All that remains are memories  
There is a place where coldness and warmth are Woven into one_

_Do I love?  
Do I hate?  
So I hesitate_

_When I know  
When I feel  
I may be too late_

_It seems I'm living in a world  
Where joy and sadness have no shape  
They are both the same_

_The sky is passing by  
The clouds are passing by  
The rain keeps falling on me  
It all keeps falling away_

_One day I'll find it  
Someday I'll find it  
Within the vast and endless world  
There is a place where tenderness calls the Solitude a friend_

_No one is with me  
Nothing is with me  
All that remains are memories  
There is a place where coldness and warmth are Woven into one_

_Our moments pass on by  
Then people pass on by  
And love keeps drifting away  
It all keeps drifting away_

_One day I'll be there  
Someday I'll be there  
End of this long and lonely road.  
There is a place where tenderness calls the Solitude a friend_

_No one is with me  
Nothing is with me  
All that remains are memories  
There is a place where coldness and warmth are Woven into one_

When she finished sining, her daughter had fallen asleep and I realized that I was lost in my was leaving the room and I decided to make myself known.

"Hello. Eir." I said with an unusually warm tone, for my current self at least.

"Hey dad." I had adopted Eir during our journey. She had changed over the years from the shy little girl to a warm and caring mother. As she aged she became a beautiful woman. Her auburn hair reached the small of her back, her olive-green eyes had darkened slightly as she had developed a small tan. A few men tried to court her. Several of those men, when they broke her heart, had turned into test subjects for one of my generals, after she finished with them. I had offered her a position as one of my top officials, but she had turned it down. She preferred a peaceful lifestyle to raise her daughter with her husband.

"So how is my granddaughter doing?"

"She takes after her father. So much that she's a handful at times." this caused me to chuckle.

"He's still a handful." I said while making a mental note to get a toy for my granddaughter Emi.

"So when is he coming back?"

"Soon. I sent him to "escort" some people." I did the quotation marks with my hand when I said escort. Eir just shook her head. We spent the next hour catching up and had some coffee before I had to go.

"Wait dad!" Eir stopped me as I was leaving. I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my lower back.

"Ack! What did you do?" I shouted and grabbed where I felt the pain. I soon found that my hand was covered in blood.

"You had this in your back." Eir showed me a bloody dagger with a familiar design on it. It caused me to arch one of my eyebrows.

"Looks like Kana is improving." I said as I pocketed the dagger. Eir had helped me dress my wound and said our good byes. I was starting to wonder if I was getting slower, since Kana had gotten me with one dagger.

* * *

"Shit! Thirteen!" Linier shouted as he pushed people towards the portal.

"Heh. Looks like I caught you at a bad time." Thirteen could be seen smirking as only half his head was covered by his helmet.

"What are you doing here?" Lloyd asked.

"Do you honestly think that Max would leave a portal open without someone watching it?" Thirteen said as he unsheathed his saber.

"Wait! What are you going to do?" Lloyd paled.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm making the choice for you."

"I thought you were our friend!" Colette said as she held her weapons defensively.

"It's nothing personal. Just my orders." he then snapped his fingers. Silent orders went out as the surrounding forces approached the group, forcing the group to take a step back towards the portal. In a sudden movement several of the soldiers tried to grab one of the group members only to be blocked by Linier. Realizing that they had two choices they quickly made a decision. They could either stay and fight or flee through the portal. With three injured kids with the group they had little choice as Lloyd handed over Naomi to Sheena and drew his weapons. Mithos did the same, handing Gabriel to Colette, as Regal kept Ryan with him. The three approached the portal and with a nod they jumped through.

With a look, a silent conversation went on with the rest of the group, they rushed into the portal. On the other side of the portal everyone landed safely, and felt a surge of power as their bodies absorbed the mana around them. Mithos grinned at the returning power and gathered a sphere of mana in his hand. Before he could do anything Thirteen and his soldiers appeared out of the portal and surrounded them again. Mithos launched the sphere at one of the soldiers, only for that soldier to backhand the attack and deflect it away from the group.

"Pathetic fools you underestimate our power!" Mithos shouted as he gathered mana for his spells as did the rest of the group, who weren't watching the children. They attacked the guards as Thirteen would be in the back watching the entire fight, ready to step in when necessary. Lloyd and the others fought fiercely with the abundant mana fueling them. Unfortunately their bodies had adapted to the small amount of mana, that was available to them on earth. Their bodies were taking time adjusting to the large amounts available, and was not able to process it fast enough. This in turn caused them to ware out quickly. Soon most of the group found themselves winded and barely standing.

"Max has ordered that you be captured alive. Please don't take it p-" Thirteen was unable to finish when a roar filled the air. All of his soldiers suddenly froze just before the soldiers were bathed in flames. A large black dragon appeared in front of Thirteen, with a person standing on its head, and before he could react to the dragon it unleashed a torrent of fire on the unsuspecting general. Several more dragons appeared and landed next to Lloyd and his group.

"Linier Your Back!" a blond-haired person stood on top of the largest dragon.

"Who are you?" Lloyd said as he stood back up, out of breath.

"I don't have time to explain. We have to get out of here NOW! Get on the dragons!" Lloyd nodded at Linier's command ,and signaled for the rest of the group to get on a dragon.

As they were flying off Thirteen walked out of the inferno. Not a single a single scratch or burn was on him as the runes on his armor had a light blue glow. A moment later the rest of the flames died down revealing the unharmed soldiers.

"Just as planned." He said before he warped himself and his men to the capital city.

* * *

A pulse of power coursed through my body signaling that someone one had used the portal that I had left open.

"Lord Max." I turned to face a soldier. I should have notice right away that something was off.

"Yes?" I suddenly hear a clash of metal behind me. I turned arround and found an assassin holding a sword in a standstill against another sword, that hovered in the air.

"YOUR END HAS COME!" there was another clash of metal from my side. I looked and saw the same thing.

"Heh. Elite assassins." I said with little surprise in my voice. "You choose now to attack me?" I saw an attack come at me only to be stopped by another floating sword. "I'm going to enjoy this"

* * *

"So who are you?" Lloyd asked the blond dragon pilot.

"His name is Emil. He's in charge of the monster division of the rebellion." Linier said.

"Monster division?" Mithos asked.

"The rebellion has several divisions. There is the tech, Monster , Humanoid division, Angelic, Information gathering, Magic, Medical you know those kinds of things. Each division has its respective leaders."

"So the rebellion has expanded in our absence." Sheena said.

"Will we be able to meet them?" Colette asked.

"After we meet with the commander." Emil said as he encouraged the dragons to go faster.

* * *

Three dead bodies were now laying at my feet while a sword was sticking out of each one. Several more assassins were in my field of vision.

"_can I play now?"_ a voice echoed in my mind.

"Have fun." I said out loud confusing some of the assassins. The other seasoned ones stiffened as they heard rumors about what was going to happen next.

* * *

Soon Lloyd and company flew over a familiar desert and landed in front of the Renegade base.

"Oh the Renegade base." Colette said.

"If I knew this was a Renegade base I would have destroyed it." Mithos muttered to himself.

"So is Yuan here?" Lloyd asked.

"He was captured a few years ago." Linier said

"What happened to him?" Mithos suddenly asked.

"It seemed that Max had some intel about Yuan, about his connection with the Renegades and the remnants, and had him captured."

"Remnants?" Raine asked.

"Former cruxis agents." a voice said from the main gate. Everyone turned and faced a familiar Auburn headed man.

"Dad!"Lloyd shouted

"Kratos!"Eveyone else was supprised as well.

"Dad-whats-going-on?" A groggy Naomi asked. Before she passed out again. Kratos quickly looked over the children and pulled out a radio and spoke into it.

"Prepare the infirmary." He then turned to the group. "You need to bring the children to the infirmary to get their mana stabilized." Without another word he lead them into the base.

* * *

A cry and a shower of blood came from the last assassin. As a child no older than eight was playing in the blood, like a normal child playing in a puddle of water.

"Having fun?" I said to the child. I felt a tug of energy coming from the four swords that hovered around me. "All right all right enjoy your selves." the swords flew off and embedded themselves into the puddles of blood. A moment passed as the swords sat there, the puddles started to shrink as the swords absorbed the blood. When they finished they returned to me in a familiar orbit. Except for one as he went to another puddle.

"Hey thats mine!" the child said to the sword and threw it at me. Before the sword hit me it recovered and joined the others in the orbit. The child then ran over to the puddle of blood and stuck his hand in. With a blink of the eye he had absorbed the blood and stood up, an inch taller.

"Now now. Don't be greedy, Charon." I said as the child looked apologetic and transformed into a thorned black and white sword. He then joined the others in their orbit around me. "All right I hope you enjoyed your snack, because we are going home now." One by one they faded into the air and I continued on my way, leaving the dried husks of the assassins for the monsters to ravage.

* * *

Lloyd was pacing the waiting room waiting for news of his daughter. He was on edge ever since his son was kidnapped. Sheena was looking worse for ware as the stress of her son being kidnapped and an exsphere attached to her daughter, had been wearing her down. Mithos held Colette close as they waited. Regal and Raine were sitting next to each other with a serious look of worry on them. Zellos and Presea were waiting there as well. Their son Issac had fallen asleep on his mother's lap, after he looked around for a bit. A medic soon walked in and got their attention.

"The children have been stabilized. A key-crest has been attached to the exspheres and it's safe to see them now." Before they could go see their children a voice stopped them.

"One moment." Everyone looked at the new comer and saw that it was Kratos.

"What is it Dad?" Lloyd asked eagerly. Kratos ran his hand through his hair before he let out a sigh.

"Just moments ago we had gotten confirmation that Max plans on attacking Odin, our world tree." This made everyone, who weren't on edge already, worried.

"When is the attack to take place?" Raine asked the question on everyone's minds.

"Luckily our reports say that it will take place at least a year from now." This relieved some worry but the attack still had them concerned. Without the tree the world would die and they had no sanctuary for themselves. After the attack Max could easly move his forces to earth and do what ever he wanted, but they themselves had no such luxury.

"Are you preparing a counter attack?" Raine added

"Yes. We have been planning it ever since we had discovered the attack."

"How did you find out about it?" Sheena was wondering if her people were still around.

"We were able to get a mole into Max's organization."

"Who is the mole?" Sheena asked

"He goes by the name Mathew." Kratos finished as he looked over the charts of the children.

* * *

Naomi was bored again while she rested in the bed of the base's infirmary. So since she couldn't leave her bed she decided to do what she usually did when she didn't have many options. Lloyd walked in to see his daughter balancing a pen, pencil, scissors, a ruler, and compass on the tips of her fingers on her left hand, showing how much dexterity she had.

"Showoff" Lloyd said to get her attention.

"Dad!" she quickly turned to her father. Even with the sudden movement to face her father she didn't drop her school supplies.

"I still don't understand how you can do that." Lloyd pulled up a chair and sat next to his daughter.

"Mom taught me."

"Makes me wonder what else she taught you."

"Self defense stuff."

"Like?"

"This." she took out a slip of paper and threw it towards an empty wall. Before it hit a renegade that had entered the room and was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It attatched to the guard and exploded in a large fireball, sending the guard through the wall. "What the? That was a lot stronger than what usually happens!" Naomi said with her surprise.

Lloyd quickly rushed over to where the guard was to see if he was alright. After the guard was healed Naomi apologized to him and Lloyd asked that she not use the seals inside the building. Thats when she started asking questions. "Dad, this dosent look like the town hospital. Where are we?" This was the question that Lloyd was dreading.

"You are in another world." a voice said from the door way. The two turned to face Linier without his helmet. His light blue hair was desheveled and brushed behind his ears. He had dull blue eyes and a scar running diagonal across his face. He also looked quite familiar.

"What do you mean?" She asked

"We're not in Kansas any more." Lloyd said remembering the line from the movie he watched before everything went down hill.

"I thought that we lived in Wisconsin." Naomi added. This developed a tick mark on Linier's forehead.

"Your not on Earth!" Linier said annoyed

"WHAT!" Naomi shouted as panic started to overrule her judgment.

"Calm down Naomi." Lloyd urged her daughter to clam down before she destroys something. Sheena soon came in after she had checked that some of her contacts were still around.

"As long as I'm here, I will protect you." Lloyd said to his daughter.

"Thanks Dad." Naomi said calming down.

"Don't forget I'm here to protect you too." Sheena said surprising the two. Before she noticed the hole in the wall. "What happened here?" she said pointing to the wall.

"Um. Well..." Naomi and Lloyd said in unison while copying the other perfectly.

"Your taking this better than Gabriel did." Sheena said deciding to change the subject seeing that she probably didn't want to know.

"How did he take it?" Naomi asked

"Not good. Right now Colette is comforting him." Sheena said as she ran her hand through her hair.

"How did Ryan and Issac take it?" Naomi asked

"Ryan seemed to have been expecting this and Issac seems to not care and flirt with the female guards." Sheena said causing Naomi and Lloyd to sweat drop.

"Any news on Alex?" Lloyd asked with a complete change in tone. Sheena looked down and shook her head. She soon found herself in Lloyd's embrace and started to cry. Naomi didn't look like it but she was worried about her younger brother. Linier, wanting a change in atmosphere, took this time to get their attention again. It was getting too depressive for him.

"Ahem." this caused the Aurion family to look at him. "I'm sorry to intrupt but the commander wishes to speak with your family."

"Alright. We finally get a chance to introduce Naomi to Dad." Lloyd said with a forced grin and got said girl's attention. Linier gave them a nod and motioned for them to follow.

* * *

Mithos sat next to the bed his son was currently sleeping, a look of plight etched on his face. He ended up passing out in his mother's arms. Colette set her son on the bed before she went off to find a nurse for some medicine. Mithos was lost in his thoughts as he watched his son rest, that he didn't notice Colette come back in the room, and soon found himself wrapped up in her arms.

"Do you think we should tell him?" Colette asked her husband.

"Seeing that we're here, I guess we have no choice in the matter." Mithos knew that she was talking about his heritage.

"We should tell him when he wakes up." Colette suggested

"No. Not in his current state. We need to ease him into knowing what he is."

"How are we going to do that?" Colette released Mithos and moved over to her son.

"I'm going to train him in magic and reveal it to him then."

"I guess I'll be teaching him swords or chakrams. Depending on who he takes after." Colette said as she stroked Gabriel's hair causing him to stir.

"This is going to be increasingly difficult from now on." Colette could only nod in agreement.

* * *

Zellos, Presea, and their son Issac were in the waiting room. And Issac was getting restless.

"Can I go look around?" Issac said with his face resting in his hands.

"No." Presea said in her 'cheerful' tone.

"But..."

"No."Presea repeated

"Daad!"

"Don't whine. It scares the chicks away." Zellos said giving his son an all-knowing look.

"Fine" Issac grumbled

"I think now is a good time to explain our predicament to our son." Presea said getting the attention from both males. Zellos looked wide-eyed before letting out a groan.

"Well since we're here might as well. No place like home." Zellos suddenly had another idea "Hey after this lets see if the kings still around. If he is maybe we could visit."

"You know a king?" Issac gave his father a unbelieving look. Zellos gave a grin that gave a look saying I know something you don't.

"Ya we go way back. I dated the princess for a bit." Zellos looked over at his wide-eyed son.

"Wow. How did you not end up with her? No offense mom." Presea just nodded.

"She was in an arranged marriage. We couldn't see each other anymore or the king would probably have me exiled or something."

"Oh. Sucks."

"Not really, she wasn't as beautiful as your mother." Presea smiled at this and gave Zellos a kiss. Zellos and Presea kept telling Issac about their past. Soon it was very late and they decided to retire. Issac couldn't wait to brag er talk with his friends about what his parents told him.

* * *

"This is the commander's room." Linier said as he approached a double steel plated door. "And this is also where we part ways."

"What do you mean?" Lloyd asked.

"I have another meeting I must attend. I'll see you later then." Linier said as he gave the Aurions a wave and disappeared around the corner.

"So who's the commander?" Naomi asked as they entered the elegantly decorated room.

"He's my biological father."

"So he's my grandfather?"

"Yup" Sheena said as they approached the desk where an auburn headed person could be seen going over paperwork. When they got to the desk he sopped and looked at them. A faint smile could be seen on his face. If only for a moment.

"Hey Dad." Lloyd said shocking his daughter.

"Wait. Wait. Wait. That's your dad and my grandfather?" She said pointing to Kratos.

"Yeah it's kinda hard to believe, but he is."

"He looks just as old as you."

"One of the side effects of being somewhat immortal." Kratos decided to step in.

"IMMORTAL!" Naomi had a look of surprise plastered on her face as well as a fragment of jealousy. Who honestly hasn't thought about being immortal. Meeting one, some would be jealous and others would pity them.

"Not really but a similar fate." Kratos said trying to calm the girl.

"So how old are you?" Naomi asked after she calmed down.

"I'm not certain I had stopped counting the years after four thousand." When Kratos said this Naomi could only gape as her thoughts just stopped. Using the pause Sheena decided to speak up.

"Hey dad, what s the news. I haven't been able to reach any of my contacts."

"Since when have you called me dad?" Kratos said with an amused look on his face.

"I felt like it. Why don't like it?" Sheena said with a mischievous look.

"N-No. It just caught me off guard." Lloyd and Sheena snickered at his response and Naomi broke out of her stupor.

"Y-Your ov-er f-f-four thou-sand years old!" Kratos just gave a nod to Naomi. "H-How?"

"It's not something I like to discuss."

"Naomi." Lloyd had gotten his daughter's attention. "Immortality comes with a heavy price."

"R-realy?" Naomi said with a small amount of fear in her voice.

"Yes the person would lose their sense of feeling. Followed by losing the ability to sleep."

"That dosent sound that bad."

"It gets worse. some would lose their voice and others would end up having their soul locked away. They would be doomed to walk the rest of their lives as a living corpse. They will never again know emotion. Never again experiencing they joys of life. Doomed to be nothing more then a mindless puppet for eternity. The only way they will find piece is when some one kills them." Naomi looked horrified at she heard. Living a life devoid of emotion turning into a living puppet dosent sound appealing. Until a thought came to her.

"How come you're not a mindless puppet?" she asked innocently.

"I was fortunate enough to acquire a rune crest to negate the negative effects. I have seen many who have failed to aquire one, and it is a sad sight." a knock on the door had gotten their attention. "Enter" Kratos said and soon after a guard came in and handed him a letter and left. Kratos quickly read over the letter. For a brief moment you could see the look of surprise on his face before it quickly disappeared. "We found Alex."

* * *

Gabriel stirred from his sleep to come face to face with his mother. A look in her eyes he could tell that she was worried.

"Mom what's wrong?" Gabriel said with a shaky voice.

"First of all. Your not human." You could hear Mithos facepalm from the other room

"What!"

"Son. We are worried for you. Because we had already gone though the phase. A sort of puberty for us." Mithos looked at his son who seemed lost.

"We are not human." Colette said. "I was and you father was only partial." Telling a ten year old that he's not human is just as uncomfortable as the talk about the birds and the bees.

"I think it would be easier if we just show him." Mithos said as he stood up and cleared some space around the bed. Colette went over and stood by him. Gabriel could only gape as wings emerged from his parent's backs.

"Wha-WHAT!" Mithos and Colette winced at the volume of their son's voice. And the fact that their angelic senses were returning to normal. Since their senses were dulled due to the lack of mana on earth.

"We are what are known as angels." Mithos said giving his wings a stretch. Seeing that he only used them when the portals opened and flooded the land with mana. Any other time would quickly knock him out because of mana exhaustion.

"C-Can I touch them?" Gabriel suddenly appeared next to his parents with starts in his eyes. Colette gave a small laugh and nodded her head as Mithos gave a nod as well. He placed his hand on his mother's wing and felt it pass through. "Whoa!" Mithos smirked at his son's reaction. Then he noticed the crystal that was embedded in his son's hand.

"Let me see your crystal." Mithos said as he grabbed his son's hand and examined the crystal. He looked at it for a moment then.

"What the? It can't be." Mithos said as he griped his son's arm examining the crystal even more.

"Whats wrong with his crystal?" Colette asked a little worried that the disease that effected her would effect him.

Mithos had a grave look on his face. "He has a cruxis crystal."

* * *

A knock at the door had gotten the Briant family's attention.

"You may enter." Regal said as he opened the door to reveal Linier with his helmet back on.

"Excuse me Raine, Regal. There is something I would like to discuss with you."

"Your Linier right?" Ryan said as he got up to take a good look at the soldier. "It's nice to meet you." Ryan said as he held out his hand.

"Nice to meet you too." Linier said as he shook Ryan's hand. He muttered something as a blue aura encompassed Ryan. Soon Ryan went limp and Linier caught him before he fell to the ground.

"What are you doing!" Raine shouted as Regal grabbed Ryan from him.

"He needs to rest. He also shouldn't hear what I'm about to say." Linier said as he took off his helmet revealing his features.

"What did you do to him?" Regal said in a threatening manner.

"I just put him into a deep sleep. The spell will ware off in an hour." Raine was relieved to find out that Ryan was effected by a spell that put him into a deep sleep. She then looked at Linier and froze. She glanced down at her son then back to Linier. The only difference she could see was that Linier had a more mature look and a scar. Other then that, they could easily be mistaken as brothers.

"Who are you? I honestly don't believe that you're who you say you are."

"Of course a mother would recognize her son, no matter the age they are." Said Linier with a smile.

"What do you mean?" Regal asked barely phased by Linier's announcement of being their son.

"It may be hard to believe but I am your son. It's simple explanation, there was an accident that involved one of Max's portals. I was pulled into it and was sent back in time. I ended up being helped by Max. Before he became the twisted person he is now. Its sad really I saw how much he had changed and I couldn't help him." the older Ryan said as he shook his head.

"Wait. Your the Ryan that we met back then?" Raine asked unbelieving as Ryan could only nod in response.

"Is it weird that you met your son before your husband?" Ryan joked.

"It would be strange meeting your child before you met your spouse." Regal said with a hand on his chin.

"Why are you telling us now?" Raine asked as she tucked the younger version of Ryan into the bed.

"Because that accident is going to happen soon." Regal and Raine were shocked to hear that they would loose their son soon.

"When is it going to happen?" Raine was just about shouting as Regal held her back. He gave Ryan a hard stare that said 'tell me everything.

"I don't remember the exact date and time but all I know is that it happens before Max's attack." This left Raine and Regal worried. Ryan spent the rest of the day reconnecting with his parents and easing their tension. He left asking not to reveal anything about himself to his younger version. He left after that saying that he had some business to finish.

* * *

"What?" Gabriel asked.

"Oh No." Colette said barely audible. "Do we have a rune crest?"

"I don't know. We will have to ask Kratos if he has access to one." Mithos said. He then noticed that Gabriel looked uncomfortable and rotated his shoulder. "What's wrong son?"

"I think I slept wrong. My shoulder is stiff." He said as he rubbed his shoulder.

"Turn around and take off your shirt, Now." Colette demanded. With a small twinge of fear Gabriel nodded and did what he was asked. He knew just like his father that it wasn't a good idea to upset his mother. Her wrath was legendary. Adding her angelic abilities made it worse. How did one sweet and carefree girl become such a feared person? Part of it was becoming a mother and the other well thats for later.

"No" Colette and Mithos said as they saw the green crystalline structures on their child's back. Mithos quickly went to find a guard as Colette went over to her son to examine the crystals.

"I don't give a damn if he's busy! Get him NOW!" they heard Mithos yell at a guard. A few moments later Kratos entered their room.

"What's wrong?" Kratos asked, confused at his ancient friend panic.

"What's wrong? WHAT'S WRONG! I'll tell you what's wrong! Max attached a cruxis crystal to my son! And worse he has that damned disease! How Did The Medics Miss this!"

"What!" Kratos barely held his shock in check. Thinking quickly about the situation, they had time but not much, he quickly processed the possibilities and proposed his idea. "I'll have my people gather the resources for the cure and I'll contact _him."_

"I thought he had disappeared after the world was reunited?" Colette asked.

"He didn't. He ended up contacting us awhile back asking if we knew where his son was." Kratos gave some commands to the guard. The guard left in a rush as Kratos turned back to the Yggdrasil family. "He should be her by the morning. All we need to do is get the materials needed for the cure." Colette nodded and exited the room. A moment later she came back in.

"Um... What was I suppose to get?" Mithos let out a sigh. He wondered if his wife has a split personality at times. By the end of the day they had quickly gathered the materials, when a knock was heard from the door.

"I got it." Gabriel said as he opened the door and stood face to face with a graying man just as tall as he was.

"Elo their lad." the gruff man said. Gabriel soon felt a presence behind him as his mother appeared and gave the man a hug, while lifting him off the ground. "I-It's G-good-T-o-see you t-oo, Colette." he struggled to say as colette seemd to squese the air out of the man.

"It's good to see you too Dirk! I thought you were going to be here in the morning?" Colette said as she crushed the stout man in a hug. Mithos shook his head as he pried the man from his wife's arms and set him on the ground. They had a chat as they went to the base to process the materials that they had painstakingly gathered and created a rune crest for Gabriel. After that Dirk went off to find Lloyd, Sheena, and his grand daughter. Soon Mithos and Colette were relentlessly hammering Gabriel with lessons on how to control his body and abilities. The first week Gabriel always came back to their room and collapsed onto his bed completely exhausted. Soon he became adjusted and would be sparing with his parents.

* * *

Emil was walking down a hallway headed for his office and a relaxing drink. A _stiff_ relaxing drink. His thoughts were slightly disturbed. He was troubled since he had rescued Lloyd's group from Thirteen. "He could have easily pursued us and taken us down, but he didn't. Why?" he muttered to himself. He soon found himself on the ground being glomped by a brunet.

"Emil Your back!" she said.

"It's nice to see you too Marta." He said trying to pry the girl off of himself.

"My My. Isn't this an amusing sight." a disembodied voice said.

"Tenebrae..." Emil said as Marta was still latched onto him. Tenebrae was the only centurion that was able to escape Max's capture and corruption. The others could be seen in their core state next to their elemental summon spirit, with a dark chain orbiting each one.

"Yes Lord Emil?" Tenebrae said with an innocent look.

"Your Late!" Emil shouted.

"My apologies. I had to figure out how max was able to take control over the centurions and other spirits."

"And?" Emil said as he continued to pry Marta off of himself.

"Nothing yet." Tenebrae continued. This caused Emil to let out a sigh. "It is quite puzzling that Max was able to enslave the other spirits so easily."

"What have you learned at least?" Emil said as he was finally able to pry Marta off himself.

"Some one had taught Max on how to use it." This instantly got Emil and Marta's attention.

"Who would know how to even teach it?" Marta added

"It is unknown on how Max had learned to control the spirits. Fortunately when he tried to control you, Lord Emil, it bound your spirits together in an unusual way. Usually the summon spirit part of you would be the dominant mind, but Max's spell found an equilibrium between Emil and Rattatosk. Forming the Emil we now know."

"That explains why his one eye is red while the other is green." Marta reasoned. Tenebrae nodded in response.

"Master Emil." A guard appeared and handed a paper to Emil. Emil quickly looked over the paper before igniting it with a spell.

"What was that about?" Marta asked as the guard left. Emil let out a sigh as continued to his room. Not being deterred, Marta followed. When they got to his room Emil pulled out a bottle of a strong alcohol and poured him self a glass. As soon as he finished the glass he poured another and handed it to Marta.

"They found Origin. He's under Max's control." When Marta heard this she quickly swallowed the drink, poured a glass and handed it to Tenebrae. He did the same.

* * *

It was late in the evening when I called Thirteen to my house. I needed to test a theory. I was told of this possibility by Maxwell.

"Who knew that restoring your memories was a simple as telling you your full name. I'm still going to call you Thirteen." I said as I sat back in my chair, enjoying a hot drink. Across from me Thirteen sat with his arms and legs crossed and his helmet on the table revealing his features.

"Of course you would." Thirteen smirked

"So now that you know who you were. Are you still going to listen to my orders?" He gave it a moment and nodded.

"I know the complete plan, unlike the other twelve, and I think it's best that I help you."

"Good. Would you like to help me train my successor?" I asked as it just came to mind.

"Why are you going to choose a successor now?"

"Because if I don't make it to the destined time, then someone will need to continue the plan."

"Am I going to be your successor?" Thirteen asked with an unamused look.

"No I have some one else in mind. Once I restore their memories I will offer it to them."

"I see. So it's going to be one of them. By the way are you going to keep up your facade about going insane?" Thirteen asked.

"When have I ever been sane?" I said with a disturbed smile on my face.

"Heh of course. Anyways how about the up coming attack?"

"From my reports everything is on schedule." I said as I finished my drink.

"I wonder if they are ready?"

* * *

It had been a month since Lloyd and his group's arrival to Veria and they were adapting quite fast. Four kids could be seen in the Renegade base headed towards the training facility.

"I can't believe that our parents kept it a secret! When were they going to tell us that we were from another planet!" Naomi said as she brandished her new sword.

"Yeah, its hard to believe that our parents are from another world. Everything I know is about earth. Kinda feels like a waste." Ryan added

"Well that's nothing. I found out that I'm not really human." Gabriel said as he took his wings out. Naomi, Ryan, and Issac could only stare.

"Wow" Was all Naomi said before she disappeared and was seen again after tackling Gabriel to the ground. "It's so soft!" she purred as she stroked his feathers. She found a seat on Gabriel's head, as he was face down on the floor.

"Get off me!" Gabriel gave a large flap of his wings and tossed Naomi into the air. Naomi just grinned and did an aerial flip landing on her feet. Gabriel looked over and saw Naomi sticking her tongue out. Thing in turn caused a tick mark to appear on Gabriel's head. Ryan and Issac were watching with an amused look on their faces.

"I think we should get out-of-the-way." Issac said as he took a step back.

"Yeah I would agree." Ryan joined his red-headed friend at the edge of the training field, just before something exploded right in front of them where they were standing.

"Get back here!" Gabriel shouted as ran with a ball of light in his hand.

"Make Me!" Naomi said as she ran circles around Gabriel. Their fight started to escalate as Gabriel stated using his basic angelic abilities as Naomi used the skills that her mother and father taught her. Namely swords and seals. Ryan and Issac just shrugged and drew their respective weapons. Issac held a six-foot polearm while Ryan pulled out a bow-staff.

"I don't think we should let those two have all the fun." Ryan said.

"I agree." Issac gave a nod, readied their weapons, and the two charged... Right at Naomi and Gabriel. Naomi and Gabriel's attention was directed at each other, and noticed a second too late when Ryan and Issac attacked them.

* * *

There was a loud scratching sound coming from one of the doors of Max's mansion. A raven colored man answered the door. The man soon found a four-legged creature sitting at the door with the guards laying on the ground behind it, knocked out. The man knew that his master was expecting this creature soon and let it in. the creature walked into the house using it's nose to guide it. It's green and white fur reflected in the decorations as it headed deeper into the manor. I soon heard the scratching at my private library.

"It's open." I said as the green and white creature entered. "Oh your back. Did you enjoy your trip?" I asked as I placed a collar on its neck. The one gem on it gave it the ability to speak in a human tongue.

"Sometimes you're a real bastard you know." It said.

"Why thank you. Your compliments make me feel better, Noishe." I soon found that Noishe had pined myself against the wall.

"Why did you take him!" he demanded.

"Simple." I said as I threw him off of me, he landed gracefully a distance away from me. "I needed another bargaining chip against you. If only the others knew your true strength." All I got was a growl in response. "Fine since you've been a good sport. I'll tell you who has Alex." This had gotten his attention. He sat in front of me waiting for me to continue. I just had a smirk "But first there is a price for it."

* * *

Naomi, Gabriel, Issac, and Ryan had finished their fight... err spar, and were headed back to the infirmary to be patched up. Crying had gotten their attention from one of the hallways that they passed. Naomi's curious nature had gotten to her again and headed towards the sound. They soon came across another training room with someone crying in the middle of the room. They approached him carefully and soon recognized who he was.

"Matthew!" they chorused and said person jumped up and turned to them with a surprised look on his face. His eyes were still red from crying.

"Gabriel! Issac! Naomi! Ryan!" he said as he pulled the closest one into a hug. Unfortunately it was Issac and he had a look of extreme discomfort and awkwardness on him. Matthew's crying was quickly replaced by twisted laughter as his body started to deform. His hair grew to shoulder length, his size grew as well and soon towered over the children. His facial features changed to that of an older man as his eyes turned green and spoke in a deep gnarled voice "I've got you."

* * *

Max:I felt like adding a song I was listening to.

Mathew:o.k...

Max: Well I hope you enjoyed this future arc.

Mike: Feels like a filler.

Max: it's not.

Mathew:How so?

Max: You'll see. You'll All See! HA HA HA HA HA HA!

Mike:(smacks the back of Max's head.) Stop that.

Max: Sorry. Oh and I'm purposely not going to tell you Thirteen's real name. I'm saving that for later. (Grins)


	12. Lost

Max:So did anyone else get the 3ds? It's pretty cool.

Mathew:Ya it is. It's a shame you gave up portable gaming devices for lent.

Max:Shut it, Mathew.

Mike:Sigh... here we go again.

Max:(grins) I don't own ToS

* * *

The sun was just starting to rise when I woke up. A noise had gotten my attention as I found Talim sleeping next to me. This was odd, I thought to my self, she usually wakes up before me. I got out of bed as my foot knocked against a bottle. I looked down and recognized the label. Oh yeah she drank several bottles of Palma potion. I wondered if sword spirits could get hangovers. "_Do it" _a voice whispered. Still being partially asleep I just shrugged my shoulders and took a deep breath.

"TALIM!" I shouted. She woke up in an instant and somehow attached herself to the ceiling.

"I never knew you could do that." I said looking up at her with a smile on my face.

"That wasn't funny." she said as she landed on the bed. She stood up and immediately grabbed her head.

"Looks like you do." I said

"I what?" she responded wincing at every sound.

"Get hangovers." she just grumbled about being too old for this. After a little bit of teasing her about her hangover I had taken the time to clean the room. Just before I met up with the rest of the group.

"Hey guys." I said to grab their attention. As soon as I spoke Eir ran over to me and hid behind me under my cloak.

"Good morning Max" Colette greeted me since Lloyd was currently stuffing his face with what looked like an omelet. Raine was reading a book as Kratos was drinking some coffee. Genis was eating pancakes. After I coaxed Eir back onto her seat ,I quickly took my seat and checked how much money I had. I didn't have much so I just ordered a light meal consisting of toast, butter, and coffee. The rest of the money I used to buy Eir some food as well.

"I had chatted with the people of this town and found something that could help us in our quest." Rain said after we had finished our food. I grabbed myself another mug of coffee and took a sip. Then spat it out.

"Gah. What is this?" I said as I looked into my mug.

"That's my special recipe." Raine said. I had a spasm when she said that.

"And what is this that I'm drinking?" I asked hesitantly.

"Flavored milk." she said innocently.

"Flavored with?" I asked. She then started to list several things, half wouldn't be fit for any kind of consumption. I soon found my self praying to the toilet gods for an end to my suffering. And seeing that this was an outhouse... yeah... it didn't end well. When I finished and had gotten something edible into me, I joined the rest of the group in front of the Governor General's office. They had already spoken to the pastor and found out that Dorr had the book.

"So. What are we doing here?" Lloyd asked.

"We are seeing if the Governor general has the Booklet of Regeneration." Raine said not looking away from the book she was reading.

"And to ask if we could borrow it." Colette added.

"Oh." Lloyd said. I absent-mindlessly looked around the square and noticed a group of four people walking over.

'_Are they the impostors?'_ Talim asked. I gave a subtle nod as a small smirk crawled onto my face.

'Hey Talim.' I thought. 'Would you like to pull some pranks today?'

"Halt." one of the guards stopped us. "What business do you have here?" he asked.

"Um... We were hoping to see the Governor general." Colette said.

"Why should we let a group of random people enter and see him?" one of the guards asked. I thought 'Hey since we made it here before the impostors. Why not'

"Well... she's the chosen." I said nonchalantly and I ended up with several glares coming from the group. The guards were surprised when I said that, Would be an understatement. They were floored.

"P-Please come this way. Governor General Dorr is expecting you." a guard said as he escorted us into the government building. The conference room was actually after a long hallway with several doors lining the walls. I had to address the looks that the rest of the group was giving me. It was a look that said even Lloyd wouldn't do something that stupid.

"It got the job done didn't it?" I said to the group. This eased up some of the glares.

"Hey Max." Genis got my attention.

"Yeah?"

"Where's your sword?" Genis looked at where Talim should be attached to my side finding she wasn't there.

"Back at my room." I said giving a lie.

"I thought you had it with you when we got here?" Lloyd added.

'Damn' I thought. I need something to distract the group. Luckily we arrived. "Later" I said "we're here." we were soon greeted by a graying blond man in his late forties or so.

* * *

Meanwhile a certain spirit was stalking a group of people claiming that they were the chosen and were getting money from gullible people. She grinned as she pulled out an assortment of items ranging from tar, rope, feathers, a mouse, green peas, even hallucinogenic pills. How she got the pills she wouldn't tell me. At the end of the day four laughing and oddly dressed people were locked away in the local jail having a mental examination scheduled in the morning.

* * *

We had easily gotten the book from Dorr and were headed out when Talim met up with us. Strangely enough we didn't get the ticket for the mountain pass. I didn't mention it because I'm not suppose to know.

"Did you enjoy your self?" I said to Talim, when she joined us in the back of the group. I was the only one who noticed that she came back. Everyone else was distracted by the book.

"Yup" she chirped. I could hear the screaming laughter from here.

"We should gather supplies before we leave." Raine said as she lead the way. We were passing Marble's and I panicked thinking that if we didn't go in there things wouldn't play out the same.

"What about that store?" Genis asked pointing to Marble's. I let out a sigh of relief and prepared my self, if the desians decide to attack. Kratos noticed but decided not to mention it.

"There's no way anyone would sell those to you at a price that low!" we heard someone yell. We entered the shop just in time for a confrontation with the Desians.

"You should be thankful that we're even willing to spend money for goods from a rundown shack like this." a man clad in red leather armor responded.

"I dont need to hear that from a bunch of filthy Desians!" The girl behind the counter responded. I had pushed Eir behind me and Raine did the same with Genis and Lloyd. Kratos stood before Colette and we all were a little defensive, except for Lloyd.

"You little-" the one started to draw his weapon.

"Stop! We'll exceed our quota for this year." the other stopped him.

"We'll need permission to go any further." he then turned to the girl behind the counter.

"Depending on Lord Magnius' mood. You might or might not get to keep that pretty little head of yours!" They then turned towards us and everyone besides Kratos averted our gaze away from them. After looking at us and trying to intimidate us, in which they were doing a great job, they left.

"Well then, I'm off to work now, mom." she said. It surprised me that she could shrug off an encounter like that so easily.

"Take care Chocolate" an older woman responded from the other counter. I didn't notice her until she spoke up. She then turned to us.

"I apologize for what happened. I'm sure you were startled." we just nodded in agreement.

"My name is Cacao. Please relax and take a look around." Lloyd and Genis stepped out from behind Raine as the rest of the group wandered the store and looked around. I was about to look at the gels when something stopped me from moving. I turned around and found that Eir was still holding onto me.

"What's wrong?" I asked. She just shook her head and hid under my cloak.

"All right if your comfortable under there. At least let me do some shopping." with that I moved over to the counter that held the gels. I left the store with a few apple gels and some bandages. The pain from my wound started to flare up. I quickly searched my bag for one of the vials, that Ariel gave me, and quickly downed the medicine. I saw that I only had a few vials left and thought I would ration what was left. And before I left the store I bought some candy for Eir, who was still hiding behind my cloak.

"So where are we going now?" Lloyd decided to ask.

"North. We need to find clues on what the book meant." Raine said as she looked through the book.

"How about we ask the people at the church?" Genis suggested.

"That's not a bad idea." Raine agreed. And we soon found ourselves outside the church. Colette spoke with the pastor there and he had recommended that we go to Thoda Geyser. While we were at the church Lloyd started to chat with Chocolat, as she was working for the church. By the time we got out of the church it had gotten dark and we decided to stay one more night.

That night as I was getting ready for bed there was a knock on my door. When I opened the door I found Eir standing there in her pajamas.

"What's wrong?" I asked

"C-can I sleep with you?" she asked with puppy dog eyes. I quickly looked down the hall and saw Raine give a nod saying that she trusted me. I looked into Eir's eyes and caved into her request.

I woke up in the middle of the night due to Eir's tossing and turning. I was annoyed for a bit until I noticed that she was crying. She rolled over to my side and stilled. She soon nestled into my side and I herd her mumble "Daddy". I just laid there not moving. My thoughts were going a million miles an hour trying to think why she called me daddy. Getting tired I pulled up the blanket around her and watched her sleep for a while. A pang of guilt and sorrow ran through me as I watched her sleep. It was a moment like this that reminded me of... Them. I just smiled at the memory.

* * *

Most of the group slept in their rooms undisturbed, but that same moment another soul sat restless in his bed.

_'What was that dream?' _Lloyd asked himself. He woke up in a cold sweat and gasping for breath. His dream was fading fast he barely remembered it. All he knew was that he was afraid. He looked over to his room-mate only to find that he wasn't there.

_'I'm glad Kratos isn't here. But... I kinda wish he was.' _Lloyd pulled the blanket over his head and fell back asleep.

* * *

Kratos was wandering around Palmacosta. For some reason he was more restless then usual. The stoic mercenary soon found himself drawn to a random alleyway where he met some one.

"Good evening Kratos Aurion." the stranger said as she stepped out of the shadows. Her emerald hair shone dimly. Kratos stood there stunned the person standing before him was a haunting reminder of his past.

"It's good to see you again. Godfather." She said with a smile that could have been on her mother's face.

"Ariel." was all Kratos was able to say before she charged at him with a sword drawn.

* * *

I awoke the next morning with Eir still sleeping next to me and Talim was looking out the window.

"Morning." I said to the spirit. She didn't respond and continued to stare out the window.

"What is it?" I asked. I got out of the bed and went over to her side.

"Smoke in the distance." She pointed out.

"It's gona be one of those days isn't it." I stated just as Eir started to wake up.

"Dad what's wrong?" Eir asked and I just stood there stunned and confused.

"N-Nothing. Get ready for a busy day." I barely said through my confusion.

"Mmm-kay." She said sleepily as she got up and got ready.

"So what do you think will happen today?" I asked Talim.

"Execution." one word. Then I remembered the scene at the plaza where Colette would save Cacao.

"Great... so a fight today." I said and got ready. I double checked my supplies and counted my gels. I felt some one tug on my sleeve. I looked down to find Eir.

"Sorry I called you dad earlier. I was still asleep and you remind me of my father."

"It's alright you reminded me of my daughter." I said as Eir looked at me curiously as Talim stiffened. I only saw Eir's curious look since Talim's spirit was standing behind me.

"I'll tell you in time, about my family." I said as we headed down for breakfast.

* * *

I stood in the crowd watching from a distance. That morning the Desians came in an erected a gallows in the middle of the square. Why was I seperated from the group? Simple I got lost. Literally. I was in the back of the group thinking about what was going to happen today. Kratos was acting a little weird that morning but I decided to pay it no mind. When I looked back up to see what the rest of the group was doing, I found that I was standing in the middle of a crowd with Talim and Eir. Eir was still tired and so I decided to carry her piggyback until she was rested. We wandered abit trying to find evey one else when someone's yelling had gotten our attention.

"Out of the way! Lord Magnius approaches!" a Desian wearing purple armor shouted. Soon a red-headed person walked out into the middle of the gathering. He stood about six-foot eight and had scars running across his body. I couldn't hear much but I just watched unflinchingly as he grabbed some guy and broke his neck.

"This woman defied the wishes of the great Lord Magnius and refused to provide us with supplies!" one of the soldiers continued a saw Lloyd and the rest of the group apear on the bridge.

"Therefore. While the designated death count has been exceeded. We have been granted orders to carry out this woman's execution." I saw Chocolat run to the gallows and I chose this oppurtunity to wake Eir and set her on the ground. Before she could ask I had pushed our group to the front of the mob. By the time we got to the front Lloyd had already attacked Magnius. Moments later the battle had begun. Magnius had already warped away and the majority of the Desians were facing away from us.

"Ready?" I asked Eir gave me a nod and I could feel Talim pulse in anticipation.

The spell casters were easy targets as they weren't expecting an attack coming from behind them. They went down in a shower of attacks from Eir and myself. This had helped Lloyd and eveyone else. The battle quickly ended after that.

"Is everyone alright?" Lloyd asked. Everyone nodded as Eir and I approached.

"Max where did you go?" He asked when we got to the group.

"Sorry, I got lost on the road of life." I said and somewhere in a parallel reality a one-eyed ninja sneezed. Soon some of governor generals guards approached us.

"That was an impressive battle you fought. The Governor General would like to speak with your group." we gave a nod and followed him to the office. We had a short meeting with the Governor General asking us to lead the attack on the Palmacosta Desian ranch. A quick argument later we were headed towards the ranch.

* * *

"So where is this ranch?" Lloyd asked

"According to the instructions that they gave us it should be in the middle of that forest." Raine said pointing off into the distance.

"I don't see anything." I said. It had taken us a few days travel to get close to the ranch.

"Elves have enhanced senses. One of those would be a greater viewing distance." Raine informed me.

"I see." In my head two drums and a cymbal fell off a cliff. Badum-chi! Then Talim followed it with the fail horn.

"So you can see the forest?" I asked Eir and she nodded. I noticed that she didn't really like to talk with anyone in the group besides Genis and myself. We entered the forest a few hours later and were searching for Neil.

"Be careful of patrols." Kratos insisted as we kept our eyes out for Desians.

"Chosen one. Please wait." someone had called a shadowed part of the forest. We slowly approached since we were weary of traps and ambushes.

"Neil what are you doing here?" Lloyd asked.

"I wished to tell you something. Please follow me." Neil responded.

"It doesn't sound like you have very good news for us." Raine said

"I would like you all to just go ahead and leave the Palmacosta region." Neil continued when they were hidden in the trees.

"But if we do that what will happen to the people?" Colette asked.

"Yeah! We're suppose to work in conjunction with the Palmacosta army to save the people in the ranch. Right?" Genis said

"No. that's..." Neil tried to explain

"So... it is a trap." Kratos said surprising most of the group.

"Of the several possibilities, it looks like the worst one came true." Raine added to Kratos' reasonings

"Kratos, Professor! What are you talking about?" Lloyd asked confused

"It was a mystery that the Desians would simply leave a city with an army alone." Kratos was explaining to the rest of the group who didn't understand.

"Yes, exactly. Choosing not the crush the seeds of rebellion must mean that they are not a threat..." Raine continued. "They are left alone simply because they have no real power, Or perhaps, because they are in fact beneficial..."

"It's as you say." Neil conformed our fears. "Dorr is working with the Desians to lead the chosen into a trap."

"Why would he do such a thing?" Genis wondered out loud.

"He didn't used to be like this... He always thought of the well-being of the people of the city. Even five years ago, when he lost his wife, Clara, he swore to fight against the desians."

"Then why..." Colette tried to ask but Neil cut her off.

"I don't know. At any rate, entering the ranch now will put the chosen in danger. Leave the attack to me and please, go on your way. Please regenerate the world as soon as possible." Neil said.

"Indeed. It would be best to abandon the situation here for world regeneration." Kratos said.

"No! I can't just ignore this!" Colette shouting surprised the group.

"Colette's right. If we leave things as they are now. Palmacosta may be destroyed just like Iselia." Genis then turned to Lloyd. "You think so, too, don't you Lloyd?"

"What you say is true. But I still wish to side with Kratos. If you don't want to see cities destroyed, you should avoid contact with the Desians." Raine said

"No, that's not right." Colette continued "Regenerating the world and saving the people in front of us are not exclusive of each other. That's what I believe."

"If that is how you feel, Colette, then we do not have any right to stop you." Raine said as she turned to Colette. "The only one who has the right to make decisions on this journey is you, the Chosen One. Is that all right with you Lloyd?" Raine asked.

"That was my intention from the beginning. Remember what I said? I'm going to destroy them all." Lloyd said to the group.

"Still..." Neil sounded unsure

"It's alright. Colette is saying this is what she wants." Genis said

"Now, then, we have two courses we can take." Raine brought up the choices. "The first one is to go on ahead and infiltrate the ranch and rescue the captives. Now that things have come to this, if we leave the ranch alone, it will surely result in a second Iselia." Raine let the thought process for a moment before she continued. "Our second option is to confirm Dorr's true motives. If he has planned a trap, then he knows the layout of the ranch well. Let's let him talk for a bit."

"What are you going to do to Dorr?" Neil asked a slight worry in his voice.

"You'd better not ask that. Raine's punishment is painful." Genis said before Raine hit him.

"Thinking logically, dealing with Dorr first is the correct choice." Kratos added

"What do you think, Lloyd?" Colette turned to her friend.

"Lets return to Palmacosta." Lloyd said as he turned to the rest of the group to see their reactions. He paused for a moment before he asked.

"Hey where's Max?"

* * *

I have no idea how I got separated from the rest of the group, but here I am wandering the forest out side of the Palmacosta Desian ranch. What's the worst that can happen?

"Talim do you know where everyone else is?" I asked

_'Nope sorry I dont. You seem to be getting lost quiet a bit today.'_

"Your not helping... They should be infiltrating the ranch now and here I am stuck outside." there was a noise that had gotten my attention and I instantly went into a defensive stance. I listened carefully and I made out that the noise is heavy breathing. Carefully I approached the tree where it was coming from. I found a girl at the base of the tree breathing heavily. Her auburn hair and body were covered in dirt. Her clothing was ragged and she was bare footed. The thing I took note of was the uncrested exsphere on her left hand.

"An escapee." I said a little too loud. She looked startled when she noticed me and tried to run. Only to fall over with noticeable injuries on her legs. There was another noise from coming from behind me. The sound of clinking armor. Panicking I quickly grabbed the girl and covered her mouth with my hand and restrained her as we hid behind a tree.

"Shh. Be quiet or they'll find us!" I whispered into her ear. She stilled when I said that. We sat silently as the sound disappeared. A few minutes later relaxed and released the girl from my grip.

"Are you ok?" I asked her. She just nodded.

"Would you trust me to bandage your wounds?" I continued. She paused for a moment and slowly nodded.

"Good." I said with a finality to it and pulled out some of the bandages I bought. It had taken me a little time to apply some medicine to her injuries and dress it properly. Being stranded in another world you ether had to learn fast or die. I chose to learn fast.

"Drink this. It will help heal your wounds and numb the pain." I said as I pulled out the last of the potions that Ariel gave me. She refused to take it from me.

"It's not poison." I said as I gave her an example as I drank a small amount of it.

"You might want to drink it fast." I added "It doesn't taste too good." she made a face as she put the vial to her lips and downed the rest of the potion in one go. She ended up hacking and coughing for a bit. I opened my pack and pulled out some bread.

"Do you want some?" I asked. Before I could continue she had snatched the bread and started to tare into it like she hasn't eaten in days. Which is most likely, since I remembered that they starved people in the ranch, to stimulate the growth of the exsphere.

"Let me see your hand." I said and she hesitantly held out her right hand.

"I meant the other hand." she covered the exsphere with her hand and shook her head. I had no choice I told her what I wanted to do.

"Don't worry I just want to cover it with some bandages until we get back to my group." before long her hand was covered in a bandage that hid her exsphere. We were carefully wandering through the forest, trying to find Lloyd and the rest of the group. I wondered if Lloyd would have an extra keycrest on him.

"So what's your name?" I finally decided to ask. She shook her head.

"You don't want to tell me?" I asked. Again she shook her head.

"Do you know your name?" No again.

_'Amnesia' _Talim suggested. I could only nod in agreement.

"Do you know how to talk?" I wondered why she hadn't said a word yet. Before she could respond someone shouted at us.

"Stop where you are!" I mentally cursed as I pushed the girl behind me and drew Talim. We were soon surrounded.

* * *

Mathew: What's with all the cliff hangers?

Max: Don't know. It's fun?

Mathew: That response sounds a little sadistic.

Mike: I just noticed something.

Max: What?

Mike: You two haven't fought in a while now. You two usually don't get along.

Mathew: Your right! (Punches Max)

Max: Ow damn it! (returns the punch)

Mike: What have I done? (a brawl breaks out behind Mike) sigh... until next chapter take care!


	13. A bad day gets worse?

Max:(grinds teeth)

Mike:What's wrong?  
Max: Plot bunnies...

Mike: So why aren't you writing then?

Mathew: Don't you have a chapter of vessel to wright?

Max:(Twitches) I'll get to it.(starts writing and instantly gets distracted by Mathew throwing candy at him.)

Mike: Right... RadonMax wishes he owned a part of Tales of Symphonia, but he doesn't.

* * *

"This is not good." Kratos said as he looked at the footprints left in the ground.

"What is it?" Lloyd asked looking at the footprints as well.

"According to these tracks Max was separated from us when we passed through these bushes. Someone found his tracks and followed him." Eir had a panicked look as she held onto Genis.

"I hope he's alright." Colette said the group quickly followed Max's tracks then suddenly stopped.

"What is it?" Lloyd asked.

"Max was captured."Kratos said in his monotone voice.

"What! We have to go save him!" Lloyd shouted.

"It's best that we continue back to Palmacosta so we can have a 'talk' with Dorr." Kratos stated "It's best that we can get information about the ranch so we will have a better success at rescuing the prisoners."

"Your right." Lloyd said with a defeated sigh. The group quickly avoided the rest of Dorr's military and headed back to Palmacosta.

* * *

'Shit, Shit, Shit!' I thought to my self. 'What the fuck am I going to do!' I was being dragged by the Desians towards the ranch along with the unknown girl I ran into the woods. I had thought about attacking them but I would probably get my self easily killed. Seven to one is not good odds to fight especially for an unskilled fighter as myself. I knew that once I passed the gate I might as well be walking into the pits of hell. I knew that once I entered the ranch they would most likely attach an exsphere to me, beat me senseless, starve me, force me into doing heavy labor-

'_Master!' _Talim interrupted my thoughts of doom and gloom. _'I have an idea but it's quite drastic.' _she said to me.

'Tell Me! I'll do anything to avoid heavy labor!' I almost shouted out loud. I could feel Talim give me an odd look even when she was in the hands of one of the Desians. The Desians gave me an odd look as I stood up and started walking in pace with them listening to Talim's plan.

* * *

The door to the conference room almost fell off of it's hinges as Lloyd had kicked it open.

"Dorr we need to talk!" Lloyd shouted to an empty room.

"He is not here" Raine said as she followed him in soon the rest of the group was entered as well.

"Where could he be?" Lloyd said as he looked around the room

"I hear voices coming from that book shelf." Colette said.

"I don't hear anything." Lloyd said

"Colette has angel hearing so she can hear things we cant." Raine informed Lloyd and those who were listening. Kratos walked over to the bookself and examined it. He pulled on one of the books and the shelf opened and revealed a staircase leading down towards the dungeons.

"This is all the money I've acquired. When will my wif... Clara be cured?" Dorr stood next to a Desian in front of a covered jail cell.

"We still haven't gotten enough money." The Desian said looking at the bag of money.

"I can't extort anymore money from the people with out them becoming suspicious. The taxes, tolls, the offerings to the church ." Dorr said.

"I don't care how you get the money but you better give it to us unless you want your precious wife to stay that way." Sneered the Desian as he left. When the Desian left the group made themselves known. Shocking Dorr and Kilia.

"What's the matter? You look like you just saw a ghost." Lloyd was the first to say.

"Um. Lloyd that's a really clichéd line." Genis said ignoring the tension in the air.

"Shut up. Genis!"

"What are you doing here? Neil where's Neil?" Dorr said as he looked around the room, finding not finding Neil anywhere.

"He's a little indisposed." Lloyd said anger starting to seep through his carefree demeanor.

"You. What did you do to Neil?" Dorr demanded.

"He's waiting... at the Desian ranch."

"They wouldn't capture him. What's going on?" Dorr wanted to call the guards but realized that he had sent them off for his meeting.

"It's simple. He told us about you. He was tired of the Desian's hold on the area and had told us that you were conspiring with them." Genis said.

"So even Neil betrayed me."

"The people look up to you for support against the Desians. Why are you helping the enemy!" Lloyd shouted

"It's not like I have a choice!" Dorr shouted back "I've given so much for this city to keep the people safe! Then they even took my wife!"

"We can save your wife." Raine said.

"It's too late to save her!" Dorr yelled as he removed a cover over one of the cells revealing the mutated and twisted form of his wife.

"AAH! What is that!" Genis yelled.

"She's crying... She's crying out in pain..." Colette could hear the woman's sobs even in her disturbing form.

"You don't mean-"

"That's right. This is what became of my wife, Clara!"

"So that's why you lied about your wife."

"What do you mean professor?" Lloyd asked

"When I was asking around for information, I kept hearing that something had happened to Dorr's wife, and she had died." Raine said not looking away from Dorr.

"My father, the previous Governor General, was a fool. Because of his defiant stance against the Desians, they killed him, then planted the demon seed in my wife as a warning. If I cooperate with them , they will give me medicine to save her. "

"But that means you're betraying the people of this city!" Genis objected.

"What do I care? We'll never escape the rule of the Desians anyway."

"Colette will... The chosen will save the world."

"The chosen's journey of world regeneration is not absolute. Don't forget that the last one ended in failure. She was a disgrace in many wa-" Dorr was unable to say any more as he found himself throttled against a wall. Everyone was staring in shock at Colette as she was the one who did it.

"Do not disgrace my mother." Colette said with dark tone and an innocent looking smile on her face. In the back Kilia stood looking in supprise at the chosen from the reports that she had read, the chosen was supposed to be a forgiving gentile child, not the one holding the Governor general by his neck against the wall.

"P-Please f-forgive me." Dorr said unnerved by the passive chosen's actions, but before Colette could release him he suddenly coughed up blood surprising the group. Colette looked down and saw a dagger sticking out of Dorr's side. Everyone turned and found Kilia holding the dagger with an amused look.

"You've played your part." Kilia said.

"How could you do that to your own father!" Genis shouted disbelieving what he just saw.

"That's a laugh." Kilia said as he skin turned an unhealthy shade of purple. Her body twisted and grew into a monstrous form. "I am a servant of Pronyma, leader of the Five Grand Cardinals who rule over the Desians. I was merely assigned to observe the new human cultivation technique, developed by Magnius. There's no way that a superior half elf such as I, could have a fool of a father like this!"

"A...fool of a father?" Colette said staring at the twisted form of Kilia.

"Just look at him! He didn't even notice that his own daughter was dead... because he was too busy chasing after medicine that doesn't exist... in order to save his monster wife! Hahahahaha!"

"You...Bastard!" Lloyd said as he drew his swords.

"How could you!" Colette shouted as she drew her weapons. Kilia didn't let the conversations continue as she lunged at the group. Kratos quickly blocked her path and gave a hard kick to her side, slamming her into the cell door. This was followed by several fireballs from Genis, but just as the spell was about to strike her she launched herself off of the bars towards the white haired spell caster. She would have struck him if she wasn't intercepted again this time by Eri hitting her with one of her magic enhanced punches.

"Enough!" She shouted and gathered mana. "Acid Rain!" her spell went uninterrupted and soon a dark rain started to fall in the room. Whatever the water hit started to hiss and dissolve. Raine, who was tending to Dorr's wound noticed that this would become a serious problem if they continued fighting in this rain that dissolved their weapons and armor. She too gathered mana for a spell "Field Barrier!" She shouted and everyone was then covered in a clear barrier that kept the rain off of them.

Kratos gave a nod of thanks before returning to his assault the quickly ran up to Kilia and slashed at her side. He was closely followed by Lloyd who unleashed his own attacks on the deformed half elf.

She struck back and left several large gouges in Eir's body and Lloyd's arms using her claws. Kilia then dodged Colette's chakrams, Eir's magical melee, and Genis' spells, weaving in between attacks she quickly got behind Genis and badly wounded him.

When Raine saw the wounds on Genis a flurry of emotions ran across her face until it settled on a mixture of worry and anger. She sat up from tending to Dorr and gathered mana soon Kilia found her self encased in a sphere of light that was burning her. Kilia let out a screech that filled the room everyone had to cover their ears to keep themselves from going deaf. When the light dispersed Kilia landed on the ground panting.

She let out an inhuman roar as seven scorpion tails shot out from her back and slammed their stingers into the ground. When she stood each tail pulled themselves out of the ground dripping with poison. As if on instinct three of the tails moved independently and blocked an attack coming from Lloyd, Kratos, and Colette. Catching them off guard Kilia smirked as the other free tails went and stabbed their opponents. Lloyd and Kratos were stabbed in their stomachs with the tails as the third one missed Colette. Kratos and Lloyd felt the tail pulse and poison fill their veins.

Lloyd and Kratos passed out from the poison. Colette and Eir were the only ones currently fighting against Kilia. Colette and Eir was faster then they let on as they dodged the slashes from Kilia's claws and the stabbing from the tails. Raine after treating her brother quickly ran over to them and started using her spells to remove the poison from their systems. Lloyd and Kratos was soon back on their feet.

Kilia soon faced a renewed onslaught of sword strikes, magic spells, and projectile weapons. She was soon riddled with wounds and retaliated as she released a large amount of electrical mana shocking and knocking back everyone who was close to her. She dodged several spells coming from Raine, Eir, and Genis only to realize that they were a distraction as mana flooded the room.

Feathers started to fall from obscurity filling the room in a glittering pink glow. Colette let out a cry of "Angel Feathers!" and all the feathers in the room stopped their decent and became razor sharp and flew at their target, at a frightening speed, piercing her body in countless places.

Kilia let out a gurgled scream as blood and feathers filled her lungs and collapsed to the ground. Kilia's blood started to pool around her body as the group gathered to heal their wounds. Kratos made sure she was dead as he cut off Kilia's head and cleaned off his sword. Eir was unfortunate and saw the deed and emptied her stomach in the corner.

"Wh-Where's my daughter?" Dorr said in a tired voice. No one in the group spoke. "Then she's dead." Dorr let out a laugh then started crying. "I am a fool. I was chasing something that probably doesn't exist for so long that they replaced my daughter without me noticing." Dorr sat up straining as he adjusted himself. "Please have pity for a foolish man. If it is possible please save my wife. And help me get revenge on them for killing my daughter." Dorr gave them a pleading look.

"Very well. I have a feeling that you have information that would be useful to us in our attack." Raine said as she continued to heal the party.

"Agreed." Dorr said. "I have the codes to access the base undetected and a layout of the ranch." he grunted as he lead the group back up past the main conference room to his private chambers where he handed over several scrolls containing the blueprints of the ranch as well a list of access codes. They decided to cover up Dorr's involvement with the Desians. They quickly rested and resupplied. They left early next morning making a beeline for the front line assault.

* * *

As the group exited Palmacosta they didn't notice the eyes that followed them coming from the cafe next to the river.

"They're off to the ranch. I wish I could see what they will do when they get there." A brown haired woman said as she drank her green tea. Her blond associate was drinking a black coffee.

"It would be great to see but we might get caught." he spoke.

"By who, Max? I doubt it." she said.

"I wouldn't say that." another voice said from the adjoining table causing the two to pale. They slowly turned to who spoke finding a man wearing a duel colored mask, who was slowly drinking a glass of wine.

"M-Max! Wh-What are you doing here?" the woman said trying not to spill her drink.

"Nothing much, but I should be the one asking questions, Jun." I said taking another sip of wine before continuing. "Are you and Ven enjoying your time here?"

"We are. So are we in trouble?" Ven asked.

"No, not yet at least. I have an assignment for you two. It's an assassination." I said as I pull out a file and handed it to them. "You will take out this target in a few days from now. You will find him under heavy guard but it shouldn't be a problem for you two."

"Of course." Ven said before he let out a small laugh looking through the file. "I could easily take this guy out in my sleep." Jun sheared the same look.

"I wouldn't expect any less from my eleventh and twelfth generals. When you complete your mission I'll give you a week to return to the future. Understood?" I said as they returned the file and shared a smirk.

"Of course." Ven said giving me a salute

"Yes sir." Jun said with a similar salute

"Good. Would you two like to join me for lunch?" Jun and Ven shared a look before agreeing.

* * *

The trip back to the ranch was uneventful at best. But with the information that Dorr had given them they had the confidence that they would be able to infiltrate the ranch without many problems. Upon the arrival at the forest outside of the ranch something felt off. When they got closer to the ranch they found the security lax at best. This had confused the group. They quickly went to the place where Neil would be waiting for them but when they got to the spot he was gone. Kratos quickly looked around the area and spoke.

"Neil was captured." was all he said before he left the clearing the rest of the group following. They soon found themselves at the side entrance of the ranch and were about to enter the code.

"It's the chosen!" they heard some one shout from behind them. They soon found themselves surrounded by Desians and quickly drew their weapons. What happened next confused the group as the Desians dropped down to one knee bowing and heads facing the ground.

"Colette what's going on?" Lloyd whispered to his friend. She just shrugged her shoulders as she didn't have a clue either. Before anyone could speak one of the Desians spoke.

"We have orders to take you directly to see our leader. Lady Colette." The Desian spoke without lifting his head.

"This could be a trap." Raine said before any one else could speak another voice was heard.

"It's not a trap." the Desian said as he exited the side entrance and walked towards the group. Only to stop when Lloyd faced him with his weapons drawn. "Woah, calm down Lloyd."

"How do you know my name?" Lloyd said slightly lowering his guard.

"Besides the wanted posters. We already met." The Desian said as he took off is helmet and put on a pair of glasses.

"Neil! What are you doing with the Desians? I thought you were captured." Raine asked as a shocked look appeared on her face as well as on most of the group's faces.

"I was until I met the leader." Neil said in a calm tone.

"What did Magnius want with you?" Genis asked.

"Magnius is no longer the leader of this ranch." Neil said with a smile.

"What?" Most of the group said in unison.

"Come you should meet him. I know you will like him." Neil said before he turned to the other Desians. "Go back on patrol. And you know what to do if you find the others." with that said Neil lead the way into the ranch. The rest of the group followed with weapons still drawn airing in the side of caution in case the were led into a trap. They passed several areas of the ranch from the strangely mostly empty prison to the Desian personal quarters. What some of the group found odd was that some of the prisoners, even with the small numbers, were half elves and others human. They soon arrived at the control center of the ranch.

"So many warp pads." Lloyd said still a little dizzy from the teleporting. Genis would have said something sarcastic but was busy loosing his lunch in the corner. Kratos looked like it didn't even effect him. Colette was spinning around as Raine cast a healing spell on herself. Eir was laying on the ground trying to figure out which way was up. Neil having gotten use to the teleporting was enjoying watching the group with an amused look.

"We're here." Neil said as he lead the group into a large circular room. He then went over to a desk filled with paperwork and man grumbling as he signed the papers. "Sir the Chosen's group has arrived." The man set down his pen and looked up at the group. Everyone except for Kratos seemed to tense before he spoke in a familiar voice.

"About time you got here I was wondering if Dorr or Kilia were giving you a hard time." the man said as he took off his helmet and tossed it onto the desk.

"Max!" most of the group just about yelled.

"Yup it's me and welcome to my former Desian ranch." I said with a cocky grin.

"But... How? We found evidence that you were captured." Raine asked. Not believing that I was the one standing in front of her.

"Lets just say that I tricked Magnius to just about hand me the controls to the ranch." I said as I called one of the Desians to bring us some refreshments. "You must be tired." I said as I looked at what I thought looked like a clock. "I'll have the men set up some rooms for you to lodge in for the night. We can talk more in the morning." as they were escorted to the personal quarter of the ranch I quickly called out to the one person I wanted to talk to. And I was freaking nervous.

* * *

"Kratos. May I have a moment of your time?" I said and the group stopped altogether, with everyone looking at the mercenary. Kratos gave a nod as the rest of the group went to their rooms. When they left I switched off the teleporter and Kratos gave me a curious look.

* * *

Mike: Your making Colette quite aggressive.

Max: I know! (Grins)

Mathew: right...

Max: Anyways what are we going to do tonight?

Mathew: The same thing we do every night. Try to Take Over the World!

Mike:(starts humming the Pinky and the Brain theme song)

Max: See you next chapter!


	14. A step in the wrong direction

Chapter 14: A step in the wrong direction.

Max: I'm Back.

Mathew: Damn IT!

Mike: So what's with the late update?

Max: Simple a three tier problem.

Mike: and what would that be?

Max: First: A lack of inspiration/writer's block. Second: A lack of time because of two jobs. And third: Look at my computer screen.

Mike: Why do you have Minecraft _and_ Terraria running at the same time? And eighteen different stories open?

Max: Eh... Um... Er... (closes the games)

Mike: Never mind

Mathew: RadonMax Dosen't own Tales of Symphonia

* * *

To say that I was nervous would be an understatement but I thought that it had to be done. Probably not but I felt that I should do it.

"You learn lots of things when you take over a Desian ranch." I started. "Especially the command hierarchy... Lord Kratos." I saw him reach for his sword. Shit. "You have my word that I will not reveal your identity. I just wish to bring up the obstacle that may decide to show themselves on our journey." I franticly said feeling the beads of sweat forming on my forehead, but I could see Kratos freeze his pose as he waited for me to continue. "Some of the other Grand Cardinals have been trying to get me to assist them in assassinating the current chosen. I declined them saying that 'I was getting adjusted to how the ranch runs and would not be of any use.'" I saw Kratos slightly react, with the narrowing of his eyes, when I said the part about the assassination.

"I see. Why are the Grand cardinals trying to go against orders?" He asked and I thought about it for a moment.

"I believe that either they were deceived by the Renegades or have a lust for the power contained in the chosen's crystal." I said talking out of my ass.

"I believe I will have to investigate. May I ask how you acquired the leadership of this facility?" Kratos gazed sternly at me. I just smirked as I replayed the event in my head.

* * *

_'I have an idea.' _Talim told me _'if we play our cards right we might get out of this scot free and twist things in our favor.' _Talim communicated to me. I was watching the guard that was holding her slightly react when she was speaking to me.

'Tell me I'm desperate to not get killed right now!' We were almost at the ranch and the child I had found was next to me, as we were _escorted_ by the guards.

_'First we have to get to Magnius himself.' _

'I doubt that's the hard part.' I thought with a sarcastic look.

_'I hope you're a good actor because this is the hard part. On second thought to be safe I'll mess with your brain for a bit.'_ Talim said as she told me her plan and before I could say anything a sudden dizziness washed over me. Soon we entered the ranch. I found my self trying to get over the motion sickness from the teleporters, combined with what Talim did i was not feeling too good. Unfortunately I soon found myself face to face with Magnius.

"What is this pathetic vermin doing here?" He spat from his oddly shaped floating chair.

'I got to get my self one of those' I thought. I shook my head and started.

"You _dare_ call ME a pathetic vermin?" I spoke in a cold tone. I crossed my arms surprising the guards, since my arms were previously bound. I could see Magnius glare at me from his seat.

"You are nothing but a pathetic little vermin that needs to be eradicated." Magnius said with his arrogant tone. I had become annoyed at the idiot leader's antics and held my hand out towards the guard that held Talim. Her sword-form suddenly disappeared from the guards hand and appeared in mine. When she appeared she had forced mana into my body, which caused me some pain but I had ignored it, and changed my mana signature. The guards and Magnius took notice of the effect as I saw the look on Magnius' face change from arrogant to fear and the guards also took a step back. Talim had changed my mana signature to one that resembled a certain auburn headed man, cruxis angelous. Well changed wouldn't be the right word more like masked especially since I didn't have mana, but that's for another time.

"Listen worm, I have my orders and you will not stop me." I said in a tone that made the guards shirk back, and if I was watching this probably my self as well. "I have direct orders from Lord Yggdrasil himself. I will be taking over operations of this facility and you will be reassigned. He is displeased with your pathetic efforts of your so called 'cultivation'. " I sounded confident but when in reality I was scared stupid. If it wasn't for Talim helping me I probably would not have even pulled this much off.

"But I was given orders to eliminate the chosen." Magnius said with a confused look on his face as he got off his chair and approached. Causing me to become more nervous.

"Who gave the orders." I asked pretending that I didn't know with a look of annoyance.

"I was passed orders from Rodyle, that we were to eliminate this failed chosen." looking like he was starting to put things into perspective.

"I believe that you were deceived." I crossed my arms looking disappointed in his answer. 'Not that hard to trick' I thought to my self. "I have heard rumors that Rodyle is actually working for the renegades. And is building some super weapon for him."

"I don't believe you." Magnius said as he pulled out his ax. Causing me to panic but Talim kept me calm and pushed me to continue the facade.

"You dare question a direct order from Yggdrasil himself? When I don't report to him that I have control of the facility, he will send Lord Kratos himself to fix it! And you... Heh heh heh... you will be exsphere fodder." I said with a menacing grin. This had the desired effect as Magnius blanched.

"W-What am I suppose to do?" hook line and sinker. I inwardly smirked since Magnius and his ranch were now at my disposal.

"You are to take a group of your best men and hunt down Rodyle. You are then to only follow direct orders from Lord Yggdrasil him self." with out another word Magnius gathered his men and left the ranch. 'And that's the last I will see of him.' I thought to my self as I knew he was the weakest of the grand cardinals and Rodyle was one of the stronger ones. "I hope the dragons enjoy the snack I sent them." I whispered with a sinister smirk on my face. I then dismissed the rest of the people in the room, as soon as the last person left I locked the door and Talim undid what he had changed in my mind. I let my fear and nervousness take hold and fainted.

* * *

"Simply put I had tricked him into going after the traitors and I took over the ranch in his place. It seems that Rodyle had turned traitor and had convinced Kvar to join him. He also tricked Magnius into joining him. After he had heard that I was now in charge of this ranch had tried to sway my opinion to one that benefits him, but I declined his invitation. When I had learned this I thought it would be best to tell it to you then have a chance that the communication get intercepted. " I quicky summed up everything and B. as much as I could hoping he would believe it. Since it was mostly biased off truth it went well.

"I see. Your smarter than you look." Kratos said walking towards the teleporter.

"Thank- HEY!" just before he left he said something to me that made me pause.

"Be careful with the lies that you surround your self with. You might soon find that they are as strong as a house of cards." he said has he disappeared in the teleporter. I wondered to my self on how much he really knew about me.

The thing is I didn't tell Kratos what happened after I took over the ranch. I just let out a sigh I thought about what happened after the meeting with Magnius.

* * *

"I never knew you had it in you." I awoke to Talim's voice. I found myself laying down on the metal floor staring up at Talim who was smirking at me.

"Nether did I. So do you think he bought it?" I said as I got up, groaning from the comfort of the floor...

"Uh oh..." Was all Talim said before he disappeared. What I didn't notice was the projector turning on behind me.

"You!" a woman shouted from behind me, causing me to jump in surprise. "Call Magnius I need to speak with him." I turned slowly to where the voice was coming from and faced a projection of Pronyma. Summoning the remaining fragment of my courage and some help from Talim I spoke to her.

"Magnius is away and I am taking care of the facility while he is absent." I said as calmly as I could. Which was quite difficult. She stayed quiet for a moment and spoke again.

"Do you have any idea when he will return?" she asked with a frown as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"No. Lady Pronyma." I said with a straight face knowing that he wouldn't return while she let out a sigh and contemplated her next action.

"Very well then. I request that you attend the meeting with the other grand cardinals in Magnius' stead." this caught me off guard.

"Oooookay...?" I said while blinking a few times.

"Is there anything wrong with the second command going to a meeting in his superior's place?" she gave me a condescending look.

"No" I shook my head trying to hide that Magnius wasn't my superior.

"Good." She said with an eerie smile. "So what did Magnius do this time?"

"What if I told you that Magnius decided to go on a fool's quest?" That I sent him on.

"Again?" she let out an annoyed sigh as she rubbed her forehead.

"I'm new here, my predecessor was killed in a renegade raid, I'm just trying to catch up with everything and I'm still confused on what Magnius wants." I said with a sigh.

"We all are confused my Magnius' actions. Do you know when the meeting will take place?" I shook my head again and she let out a sigh. She muttered something about Magnius being a complete idiot not teaching his subordinates anything. "It will be a telecommunication with each Grand Cardinal in their control rooms, later today. We will discuss the state of the ranches and the exsphere production rate. Any questions?"

"Not at the moment. If I do I might bring it up later." Pronyma gave a nod of acknowledgement and her hologram disappeared.

* * *

Meanwhile Magnius was trekking his way through a forest that hid the entrance to Rodyle's ranch when he stopped. Two people appeared before his group. A blond-haired boy who had a devious smirk while the auburn haired girl looked bored. That was the last time Magnius was seen alive.

* * *

That night at the meeting I was alone in the control room as one by one a holographic representation of each cardinal appeared.

"What do we have here?" Rodyle said as he seemed to size me up. "Magnius is getting sloppy if one of his subordinates is here instead of himself."

"Meh... He's currently indisposed." I said with a shrug. Before I could continue a guard entered my control room and handed me a paper before quickly leaving. I took a look at the note ignoring the rest of my audience and arched an eyebrow. "Make that permanently. I have just gotten a report saying that a patrol has found Magnius' body, and it had been horribly mauled by monsters. Ohwell. One moment." I quickly turned away and pushed several buttons completing my take over of the ranch. Soon the mana levels in the ranch steadily rose to a hight level. Part one of my plan started. After I finished we resumed the meeting and discussions about topics such as rebellions, renegade reports, prisoner status, etc...

Soon we came to a subject that I found a little uncomfortable with, exshpere production. Each Grand Cardinal gave their report and yield on that quarter's progress. And when it came to my turn I shocked them.

"I have stopped production of exspheres for this facility." when I said this I got different responses from each cardinal, from surprise to hidden anger. "The reason is because I am focusing on soldier production." I said with a straight face spurring confused looks from the others.

"Why are you producing soldiers?" Kvar asked everyone's question.

"Simple. If this chosen's journey is a success or not I believe we should start moving our forces back to Tethe'alla."

"Why? We haven't received any orders about that." Pronyma asked as the other Grand Cardinals seemed to wait for my response.

"It's just a hunch . I had reviewed the cycles of power gain and loss and Tethe'alla, over the years, has prospered too long and has developed technology almost similar to what we house in our facilities. So I would place my money that we will soon be moving our forces." I said going over some false data that I created. "But anyways I have a stockpile of exspheres from my predecessor about ten thousand in reserve." I said with a hidden disgust at the thought.

"Tell me the progress of your soldiers." Rodyle seemed to prod on my military status.

"I had just started when I heard that Magnius was dead so I only have the Desians currently ready. I need more time to recruit and train." I said starting to get annoyed with this meeting. "Tell me Rodyle. Ive heard though the grape vine that your building a mana cannon! Is it true?" I said with a hidden grin

"Why would I need such a device?" He said in a slight tone of annoyance.

"It's just a rumor." I said shrugging it off. But Pronyma seemed to be staring intently at him.

"I believe that this meeting has taken enough of our time and we should return to our duties in our facilities." Forcystus said as his holographic display disappeared.

"Agreed. I need to converse with lord Yggdrasil about Tethe'alla. You bring up a good point Max." Pronyma said as her hologram faded away.

"indeed" Was all Kvar said as his faded as well.

"Oh Max before I go I would like to discuss something about this chosen." Rodyle said as I turned to leave.

"Yes?" I asked with a raised eyebrow I had a feeling on what he wanted me to do. Kill Colette and get her cruxis crystal for him blah blah blah.

"I have done some research and discovered that this chosen is a failure and should be removed so the next one could be selected." Rodyle smirked his eerie smile, that made me want to kill him. No. Make him suffer. I had seen the same look on the people who killed my daughter in front of me while I was helpless. I quickly shook off my intent to kill him and responded.

"I would help if I could but I have a facility to restructure, new soldiers to recruit and train, and I'm going to be quite busy to even look for the chosen." I said getting a disappointed look from him. But what did I care? That one look reminded me of how I lost something precious but I wasn't the one who is to kill him. That task falls to Lloyd and his group. I on the other hand had other fish to fry.

* * *

Coming back from my memories I decided to see what the rest of the group was doing. While I was in route for the group I remembered to ask Talim what she did to my brain that caused me to act that way. Unfortunately she was back in the room and I was out of range so I decided to go back. Just as I was getting to the teleporter, after retrieving Talim, a noise of a chair falling over got my attention. On the other side of the room stood Eir with a shocked and worried look on her face.

'_Shit, I have more explaining to do.'_ I thought as I palmed my face. I quickly made my decision and decided to tell her that I took over the ranch so I could hunt down the other people that had killed her parents and other things. Little did she know was that I took over the ranch just because Talim suggested it. Well she didn't suggest it she probably wanted me to impersonate a cruxian so we could just walk out the front door. Something in me wanted to take over the ranch and do something about it. I didn't argue with my self about that. With my talk with Eir finished we decided to find the rest of the group. I was walking with Eir following me and Talim strapped to my back, we were approaching the room where I had Lloyd and his group taken to. I should have opened the door slowly since I soon found a sword impaled in my stomach, again.

* * *

Lloyd and everyone else, excluding Kratos, were quite apprehensive in their current position. They were being led through a Desian base by several armed guards to an unknown location.

"This is your room." The guard said with a bow. They hesitated for a moment before entering and finding a lavishly decorated room. Everyone seemed to gawk at the room's decor as dyed silks hung from the walls. Expensive looking furniture lined the room as a table was set with an abundant amount of food sat in the corner waiting for them.

"It's almost like we were..." Raine started.

"Expected." Genis finished.

"What do you mean?" Colette asked. As she peered at the table full of food. Before anyone could say anything Lloyd had already started eating.

"Lloyd didn't you think that they could have poisoned the food?" When Genis said this Lloyd stopped and choked. Raine let out a sigh and went over to help her student. Colette seemed to rub her hand against the silk wall coverings, amazed by the feeling.

"Are you forgetting that we are in the middle of a Desian ranch. For all we know this could all be a trick to get us to lower our guard." Raine said as she healed Lloyd from his food incident.

"The food doesn't appear to be poisoned." Genis said as he pointed to Lloyd. "He's still an idiot though."

"Hey!"

"Come on, you ate the food without even thinking that it could be poisoned." Genis started "This room we could be in is an elaborately designed prison cell for all we know. That person that looked like Max could probably be a fake as well."

"Genis has a point." Raine said as she finished with Lloyd. "I believe we should leave the ranch and reassess the situation."

"Do you think that the guards would let us leave?" Colette asked.

"Not likely." Raine said as she combed through the food seeing if their was something that got her attention.

"Hey Professor?" Lloyd said as he finished cleaning up. "Is it just me or does the air feel kinda odd." Genis gave Lloyd a 'are you crazy' look.

"Now that you mention it." Raine paused a moment and focused her senses. "That's strange. The ranch is flooded with mana."

"How come we didn't notice?" Genis commented.

"It had probably been steadily increasing ever since we arrived. Flooding our senses and dulling them." Raine said as she contemplated why this was happening. "We should leave this facility when Kratos arrives." a moment later the door opens as Kratos walks in eying everyone and stands next to Colette. With an unnoticeable look of amusement on his face. Lloyd races for the door before it shuts... and runs face first into it. Raine let out a sigh and went over to aid Lloyd.

The door quickly opened and Lloyd tried to jam the door open using his sword. Unfortunately I was walking through the door which caused Lloyd to stab me in the gut.

"Oh no Max!" Colette shouted as and Raine raced to aid Lloyd and me.

"Are you sure that's Max? He could be an imposer." Genis asked skeptical.

"Genis you _wound_ me." I said with a slight emphasis on wound and saw him wince.

"That's Max." Genis said defeated.

* * *

Back at the Palmacosta café Ven and Jun sat and drank their preferred drink.

"Do you think all this time travel gets confusing?" Jun asked.

"Ya kinda. Especially when you see people who work for you run around like mere children." Ven said as he watched a crowd in the distance.

"They are children." Jun said bluntly with an are you kidding me look.

"Heh Heh true." they paused when they felt a presence behind them.

"Hello you two lovebirds. Enjoying your date?" The new arrival said.

"We're not a couple!" they yelled in tandem.

"That's what they all say." The elder Max said behind his mask. "So" they could tell that his tone went deadly serious when he spoke again. "were you successful?"

"Yes sir." They both said in tandem again.

"What did you do to the body?" Max said as he took a seat next to them.

"Fed monsters with it." they said at the same time. You could feel Max's eye start to twitch under his mask.

"Why are you talking in tandem?" He asked the two.  
"We are?" They said in one voice.

"Stop that." his annoyance growing Max gets up and glares at the two.

"Stop what?" Max just lets out a large sigh and starts to walk away missing the grinning faces of his generals.

* * *

"I still don't feel comfortable here." Genis said.

"What do you mean?" I ask

"I afraid that we're going to be attacked any second." Genis kept looking all over the room seeming to react to the smallest thing.

"That's understandable." Kratos said from where he was standing "This was a former enemy base."

"Former?" Raine asked as questions started to pile up in her mind.

"Yes. I was lucky and I took some chances and have taken over this Desian ranch." I said

"So Max where did you get the decorations for this room?" Colette asked as she looked at the room more, changing the subject.

"Actually the decorations were already here." I said as I walked around the room "This use to be Magnius' room." I shook the my head he had a large picture and sculptures of himself. I had those disposed of and or used as target practice.

"So why did you take over the ranch?" Raine asked simply focusing back on the subject.

"Well I had little choice in the matter. It was either get captured and used for who knows what or do something drastic." I said as I sat down at the table of food and looked it over.

"Taking over an entire Desian ranch? Yeah that's drastic." Genis said with his arms crossed.

Ignoring Genis' comment I continued. "It happened when I was helping an escaped prisoner one thing lead to another and I ended up with control over the ranch. Let me tell you Magnius isn't the sharpest tool in the shed." I said as I took a bite of what I thought was chicken. "All Magnius was really good for was brute strength. I simply outwitted him and took over the ranch." I said with a confident smirk. "I then did something that would confuse the Desians and prisoners. I flooded the ranch with mana and forced the prisoners to ware the Desian uniforms. I soon had them mingle in a large room. With the ranch flooded with mana it was extremely hard for the half elves to sense who was human and who was not." I continued. "and to ensure that they got along I had Talim implant a suggestion into their minds."

"What was this suggestion?" Raine asked with the look of several hundred questions running thought her head.

"Simple. I had her suggest that while they were children that they were really good friends with one another until an unfortunate incident forced them apart." I said as I got up and faced them.

"So you forged false bonds with the humans and half elves of this ranch. That will slowly ware down the hatred between the two races of this area. If the bond is strong enough it will urge those half elves that are with the Desians to leave the organization so they can embrace their friendship with the humans. And thus removing the so-called Desian threat of this area while making it seem to the others that the area is still under their control?" I gave her a confused look since that was not what I had planned.

"I didn't think it out that far, but my main goal was to merge the humans and half elves into a somewhat coexistence." I said with a shrug.

"Why?" Raine asked looking confused.

"Why not?" I countered. "plus I found that the friction between the two races annoying."

"So we don't have to worry about the Desians of this area to attack us?" Lloyd asked.

"Mostly." I said "There are a few groups that have yet to receive my orders to return. I have other groups looking for them as we speak."

"What did you do with those who still didn't accept one another or overall opposed the idea?" Raine continued

"I threatened them. If that didn't work I turned them into exspheres" I said nonchalantly shocking the group.

"Wait, What?" Lloyd said the words on everyone's ,but Kratos', minds.

'Shit. Not again...' "I've said too much again..." I uttered to my self.

"Said too much?" Raine asked. And I was getting nervous.

"Secrets that I stumbled over." I said with an exhausted sigh. "A lot you do not want to know. And some I wish I never found out." I gave a quick glance around the group. Trying my hardest not to show emotion. I noticed Kratos' eyes squint in agitation but I assured him that I would not tell her about him, yet.

"Tell me." Raine said with a finality in her voice.

"Fine, but I will only tell you, Raine. I have my reasons but mostly because I believe you are the only one mature enough that will not be effected easily by this information. I will tell everyone else when I feel the time is right." I gave my conditions to her demands. She nodded in agreement and the others left for the exit. As soon as the last person walked onto the teleporter in the main control room I switched it off and snapped my fingers causing multiple holographic screens to appear around the room. "So. What would you like to know?"

* * *

I was laying on the ground breathing heavily as Talim stood over me with her practice sword resting on her shoulder.

"You seriously can't be tired now. We just got started, I haven't even broken a sweat yet." she said in a slack manner.

"You Don't Sweat!" I practicably yelled as best as my tired out body would allow. I sat up as best as I could when some one gave my attention.

"Um... Max?" some one said from my side.

"Yes?" I said through gritted teeth and immediately regretted answering like that when I saw who spoke. "Sorry about that Eir. I'm just tired from Talim kicking my ass all day." I finished with a sigh and a nod from Eir while Talim just grinned at me.

"I was wondering if you could help me with my self defense." Eir said in a quiet voice I was just barely able to understand what she asked.

"Sure what do you need?" I Said as I stood and dusted myself off.

"A punching bag." Talim said earning her a glare from me and she returned it with a grin. I saw Eir trying to fight back her laughter as well.

"Any ways. What did you need help with." I said as I turned to Eir. She lowered her head and mumbled something. I frowned and walked over to her. "Come on you can tell me." I said as cheerfully as I could which is hard when your dead tired from what Talim calls training. I would say that it's actually more like torture.

"I want to get stronger." She said with a shy finality in her voice. This brought a smile to my face.

"Well I cant teach you much, but I have a feeling that Talim could help. Then we could probably practice together." She had a broad grin when I finished.

"I have an idea on what I could teach you two." Talim said as she came closer. Her hand was on her chin in a thoughtful manner as she eyed us. And a moment later she grinned. Eir and I shared a look and I gulped, knowing that she would add this to her already strenuous training regiment.

"I think we should go check on the others." I said while running out the door followed closely by Eir.

* * *

I let out a sigh as I went over the prisoner, refugee, and soldier databases and was scrolling through the names seeing if I recognized any. This was after my meeting with Raine and I needed to clear my head of everything I told her. Which wasn't much except for exsphere production and why humans were captured. And just for fun I tried to pronounce the names.

"Felix, Jamacha, Sara, Searia, Sonder, ... You've got to be kidding me!" I shouted into the air. I quickly read over this person's file to see if it was who I thought it might be. His name wasn't spelled exactly the way I thought it would be but that was as best was I would get. I soon found my self wandering the corridors to section 358 where some of the refugees stayed and found my self face to face with a white haired boy. For a moment I thought it was Genis standing there until I saw his crimson eyes.

"Who are you?" The white-haired child spoke to me with an offensive tone.

"My name is Max." I said with a chuckle. "It's nice to meet you, Thirteen"

* * *

General info: Short stories about Max's generals. Ch1 emotions

I pinched the bridge of my nose in irritation while facing my general in charge of research and development. "Tell me why I haven't replaced you yet..." I said to my purple haired cohort.

"Because of my long list of successes and current projects?" she answered in a sweet tone that caused my eye to twitch.

"Tell me Loraine why you thought it would be a good idea to experimental with people's emotions?" I said while checking over her research data and understood less then half of what was written.

"Simple because certain emotions can trigger large bursts of strength for people and increase their productivity." she said as she put a finger on her chin and made a thinking posture. I gave a nod to her answer, that made sense for the most part. I just had one thing I didn't agree with.

"But tell me why you decided to use two of the most promising individuals, of this military, and drain the emotions out of one and forcing them into the other, Destabilizing. Them. BOATH!" I was yelling at her because the Mneumon brothers were the most promising individuals I had seen, since Thirteen, were just experimented on with out her awaiting my approval. She seemed to cower when my voice had gotten to a certain volume, I saw this and tried to calm down. "Tell me there is a way to reverse this..." she paused then refused to answer. Not wanting to decapitate one of my most useful people in my newly formed military, I went to check on what she had done. "I'll just add that it was impressive that you were able to manipulate their emotions without the use of exspheres." I said as I left the room.

I entered the testing room where Scott and Phos were being held prisoner... I mean resting. As soon as I enter I find one of the beds that were bolted to the wall embedded in the wall... next to the door frame. The next thing that caught my attention was the teen that was standing in the middle of the room. He wore what looked like a dark blue pajama set as his blue disheveled hair seemed to stick up in random positions. But the one thing that had gotten my attention from him were his eyes. His eyes were dull, emotionless, a corpse had more emotion then what I saw. It reminded me of the soulless angels that wandered around in Welgaia before I took over. Looking into them churned my stomach. Turning away from him I searched for his twin and see how he faired.

I soon found the room's other occupant, he was sitting in the corner hugging his legs. His orange hair hid his face but I could see the tears that streamed down his face. After a few moments passed the tears just stopped and he started happily humming some unrecognizable song. Bipolar would not be strong enough a diagnosis. I soon found him sprawled on the floor still humming that song.

I abruptly left to go find Loraine and see the test results of the experiment. I found her in her lab going over other experiments. I looked over her shoulder before she notice me and I saw she was working on cyborg technology. I cleared my throat and got her attention.

"Oh Max your back. So how do you like them?" She said with a curious look and tilt of her head.

"I don't for the moment. Show me the test results before and after your modifications." she looked a little downtrodden when I said I didn't like them but she perked up when she handed me the test results. I scanned over the results and I was... impressed. They and improved exponentially but only for them. The others weren't so fortunate as their brains had liquefied. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Loraine try to sneak out of the room. I quickly teleported in front of her and she bumped into my chest. I just gave her a dark glare. She gulped nervously and let out a chuckle.

Explosions rocked the facility as Loraine flew as fast as her advanced jet pack would allow her I was just behind her with one of the other jet packs I 'borrowed' from her.

"Get back Here!" I shouted and dodged several projectiles that she launched at me.

And that's a typical day in R&D.

* * *

Max: Sorry this chapter took so long to get out but life happens.

Mathew: Next time make sure you focus on wrighting.

Max: You try and hold two jobs and juggle finiances.

Mathew:...

Max: That's what I thought. Anyways Till next time have fun reading!

Mathew: Says the person who failed English every year.

Max: HEY!

Mike: He did better then you.

Mathew:... Spoil sport.


	15. On the Road again

Final boss ch 15

Max: Arugh!

Mathew: What now?

Max: There is a con to every pro.

Mathew: What?

Max: Well this story took a life of its own.

Mathew: Yeah. So?

Max: It basically shattered the original story plot and now I have to rewrite the plot line.

Mike: Well is the ending still the same?

Max: Yeah...

Mike: Well there you go you have a foundation. Now all you need to do is fill in the middle, sub plots, character development, not to mention that taking over the world is aft- (Max covers Mike's mouth)

Max: Don't tell them! Anyways... Happy birthday story. (hands the computer a cake)

Mike: Why are you forcing cake into your CD drive?

Mathew: It's best that we not know... RadonMax Dose not own Tales of Symphonia.

* * *

"It's Tearathen. Not Thirteen" The white-haired child said to me in a flat tone.

I stared at him for a moment before I spoke. "I'm still calling you Thirteen."

"So why are you here, human?" He glared at me while I was staring at him.

"I see great potential in you." I said while tilting my head. Honestly, I wouldn't know how to spot potential, even if it rubbed it's butt in my face.

"What are you talking about?"

"I want you to work for me." I said calmly... kinda...

"You're an idiot, you know that?" Thirteen said with a sneer.

"Oh, Max there you are. The guards said that you were headed here." Raine said as she approached me my attention quickly went to her.

"Hey lady I was here first." Thirteen said just before Raine smacked his head.

"Don't be rude Genis." She said

"That's not Genis." I said pointing at Thirteen.

"oh?" Raine takes a moment to examine him "I see. With the exception of your red eyes I believed you were my brother. I apologize." she then turns to me "Honestly Max, You have the mana in here so high it's hard to distinguish whose who."

"That's the point." I said.

"Wait. You're the reason that this place is overflowing with mana?" Thirteen said pointing his finger at me.

"Ya, I have the mana generators maxed out."

"Why?"

"If I had my features hidden, could you tell me apart from other half elves or from elves in general?" I asked. Thirteen paused for a moment trying to use his other abilities to see if he could identify him as a human, but with all the mana in the air it was impossible.

"I see your point, but why?" Thirteen asked with a quizzical look on his face. I grinned but before I could say anything Raine spoke for me.

"He's running an experiment." she said before whispering to me "It's best that we not tell anyone that we have mixed humans with them. It may cause them to panic." I looked at her and gave a small nod.

"Yes an experiment." I said with my hand in a thinking position on my chin.

"Max!" some one shouted and I soon found myself tackled and trying to maintain balance. I look down and see a familiar sight of auburn hair. I place my hand on her head and let a smile creep onto my face.

"Hello Eir. Were you looking for me?" I said gently to her and petted her head. She reminded me of my own daughter. It was like I was given a second chance with her and nothing would make me give it up. She didn't look up but I saw that she was looking at Thirteen intently and he was staring at her. And my visage darkened a bit. My over protectiveness kicking in. I glance over to Raine and see an amused look on her face as she watches me twitch under her gaze. "What?" I mouth to her.

"You seem to be quite protective of her." Raine said.

"She's like a daughter to me." I said quietly. I saw Thirteen look at me. "Anyways I'm going to go continue my training. You two play nice." I said to Eir and Thirteen. I soon head to one of the training facilities with Talim in hand.

* * *

"Ok Eir it's time that we get back to everyone else. It's time for todays lessons." Raine said as Eir gave a nod and followed behind her.

"Hey wait!" Thirteen shouted out chasing after them.

"Yes?" Raine asked as she appraised her brother's look-alike.

"I was wondering if I could follow you guys around. I'm kinda bored." Thirteen said not looking at Raine but at Eir. That made Eir uncomfortable and hid behind Raine.

"I don't see the problem you could probably join in the class." Raine said with her hand on her chin and a thoughtful look on her face. She didn't miss how Eir seemed to shy away from the boy but she had put it aside since it was part of Eir's shy personality around strangers and people she didn't trust. They walked down several hallways with Raine leading the way with a map in hand. The soon arrived to the lavish rooms that Max had provided them.

"Genis we're back. Did you get the books ready?" Raine announced as they entered the room. "You two can share a book right." She said it more of a statement then a question.

"I have the books where did you..." Genis was staring at his duplicate and walked over to his sister. "Sis who is he?" he whispered to her.

"His name is Tearathen and is tagging along for class today. Right." Raine gave a smile to Thirteen saying that there were going to be no arguments on his part.

"R-Right." Thirteen said nervously not liking the smile at all.

* * *

"Hello Eir." Talim said surprising the girl as she walked down one of the halls. Talim was standing in the door way of one of the training halls. Her arms were crossed as an amused look was seen on her face.

"H-Hi. Talim." Eir usually tenses up when Talim has that one look. She quickly learned about that look since same look usually meant that someone was going to end up hurt, sore, or both.

"I remember you asking Max if he could help you with getting stronger." Talim said as she approached her a gleam in her eyes.

"Yeah?" Eir said as she unconsciously took a step back not liking the sadistic gleam in her eyes. She was able to see behind Talim and saw Max unconscious on the ground. Eir turned to run but found that the spirit somehow had a solid form and had a grip on her. She was then dragged into the training room. Max's body was pushed to the side of the room as Eir and Talim faced each other.

"Get into your fighting stance." Talim spoke in a no nonsense tone and Eir quickly followed. Talim observed and examined her pose and corrected her stance. "Now attack me!" using some of her elemental energy Eir set her fist ablaze and was about to lunge at Talim. "Stop!" Talim shouted and Eir just about tripped and fell over.

"Why did you stop me?" Eir asked as she stood up.

"You need to attack me without using your mana to enhance your attacks." Eir just nodded and lunged at Talim. She just stepped to the side to avoid Eir's attack making notes as Eir came back at attacked again. This continued on for a half hour when Talim stopped her.

"Not bad for a brawler style offense. The down side is that you have very little defense. Attack me and I'll show you what I mean." Eir looked confused for a moment but then charged again.

"Ow, My head. It feels like I got hit with a truck." I said waking up in the middle of Talim and Eir's training. The next thing I noticed was Eir's body flying at me and knocking me out again.

"Sorry Max" Talim shouts from the other side of the training field. Eir stood back up a little dizzy and was rubbing her head. When she stabilized and looked back at Talim. there was a fire in her eyes. Not wanting to be humiliated again she charged at Talim. After throwing Eir around the place a bit Talim decides that now would be a good time to teach her.

"OK that's enough of a warm up." Talim said

"THAT was a Warm UP?" Eir shouted from her position on the floor breathing heavily. Talim just about ignored and pointed in front of her.

"Sit there. I figured what style of martial arts you could learn." Eir perked up when she heard that Talim had decided what her style could be. "Kick boxing" Eir had a look of confusion on her face as she tilted her head. Talim face-palmed remembering that they didn't have kick boxing here. "It's a combination of several martial art styles that I came across during my travels. Now then stand up and do what I do." Talim and Eir spent a few hours working on Eir's kick boxing when dinner came around I still hadn't awaken from Eir's unintentional K.O. So Talim and Eir took my unconscious body to the medical ward where I woke up and thanked the nurses. I glared at Talim for leaving me unconscious for an entire day... "Oh God...des the paperwork!" I shouted. I had to pause for a moment to remember that they worship a goddess.

* * *

Just before I was going to go where the rest of the group was located, I had one thought currently recurring through my head. 'How was I going to tell them about the seal of water?' I was pacing back and forth in the control room. There was a whirring sound, signaling someone was using the teleporter, as Raine appeared in the corner of the room. 'eh. Screw it, I'll just B.S. the entire thing.'

"Ah Max there you are." Raine said as she approached. I quickly composed my self and brushed my hair back.

"I see everyone has somehow settled into this former Desian ranch." I said as I took a seat on the hovering chair that sat in the middle of the room..

"Actually We're still uncomfortable with the idea that this is a Desian ranch." Raine looked like she hadn't let her guard down the entire time here. I wouldn't blame her for the most part.

"Former. Anyways what can I do for you today?" I pressed a few buttons on the chair causing several screens to light up.

"I was wondering if we could use the facilities and history reports stored here to find the rest of the seals." Raine said as she walked over to one of the screens and started accessing the databases.

'How convenient.' I thought. "Actually I have a hunch on where the seal could be." I grinned as I walked next to her and typed some commands bringing up Thoda Island.

"Hmm I see the possibility of it being there." she said with a small waver in her voice.

"That and the previous chosen had gone there for two days." I said as I pulled up a data sheet that had tracked the previous chosens' group actions. As soon as I had shown her her eyes lit up. She read over it for a moment before she stiffened.

"What's wrong?" I asked as I looked at what she had read.

_After arriving at the tower the group had vanished. No trace had remained._

"The previous group probably evaded them after the tower." I said and Raine seemed to agree. "I guess for the time being I should arrange for transportation to get us to the island?" Raine stiffened again.

"You want to go with us to the seal?" Raine gave me a skeptical look.

"Why not?" I said as I closed the data sheet. After a few button presses I pulled up a database that held account of all the vehicles in the facility. "See look this vehicle here is ready for us to use." I pointed to a large yacht on the screen.

"Hmm in that case I believe I could stay here... and... watch the base for you!" she said in a hurried tone.

"But you're the group's healer."

"They'll do fine without me." She continued sounding desperate.

"What's wrong?" I was staring at her like it was the first time we met. Then it hit me. Fear of the ocean.

"It its nothing." she started to withdraw into herself.

"Is it because it's on an island?" I just went straight to the point.

"NO..no its something else." she had quickly eyed the picture of the boat.

"You don't like boats?" I said flatly.

"Do you think the seal of wind would be north of here?" She asked 'Dodging the question I see'

"Your going with us whether you like it or not." I said with an amused look on my face.

"NO." Raine said with a finality. I looked at her then my guards. The next minute I had the guards escorting Raine to the ship. As in she was kicking and screaming bloody murder trying to get a way from the guards. With the guards _escorting_ Raine, who was trying to grab onto something that will anchor her to land, we boarded the ship and headed to the Seal of Water.

* * *

The ship arrived at the island's port in under an hour or so. When my men exited the ship, people visiting there started to panic thinking they were going to be captured, especially since my men were still weiring their uniforms. 'Mental note: Change uniforms into something else. The panic is annoying' I followed after Lloyd as he ran down the loading ramp followed by Genis and Colette.

"They're quite excitable." I said staring after them.

"Yes they are." Raine said with a smile. For a moment she had forgotten her fear of the ocean. She then realized that she was still on the boat and dashed off of it. Eir and Thirteen followed after me as I exited the boat. Kratos was the last to leave, eying every person that was trying to run to a boat to get off of the island. Soon the island was devoid of tourists... and workers.

"Alright the stone should be here somewhere." I said looking under rocks causing some people to sweat-drop.

"I think somethings wrong with him." Genis muttered to Lloyd causing him to snicker. There was the sound of the geysers erupting that caught our attention. It had been the first time I had seen geysers and I was entranced. The next moment someone was shaking my shoulder and I turned to stare at Lloyd.

"Are you okay?" he asked with a look of concern on his face.

"I-I'm fine. It's just this is the first time I've seen something like this."

"Oh me to." Lloyd said with his usual grin. I looked behind him and saw the rainbow bridge. Then I remembered something bad. Rainbows in Japanese mythology was usually seen as an ill omen. And wasn't the game made in Japan? I started to follow the group lost in my own thoughts. We soon passed the rainbow bridge and entered the cave.

As we were traveling deeper into the cave system we were all distracted by different things. except for Kratos he looked bored in his usual way but he kept an eye on Lloyd. Raine was in her usual ruin mania. Colette, Genis, Eir, and Thirteen were looking around at every small thing in the cave. I was having a silent conversation with Talim about my training.

'So. Your saying that I'm almost at Lloyd's level on swordsmanship. That's pretty good.' I thought and I could feel Talim giving me an 'Are you kidding me?' look.

_'Yeah. Lloyd's level... When he was starting out!' _

'You don't have to burst my bubble like that.' I said as I slumped. No one noticed. Fate loves to pull a fast one on me as Colette was walking behind me and tripped. Not paying attention when she fell on me I ended up pushing Eir and Thirteen. That wasn't the last thing I hit as I fell. I ended up hitting a stalagmite and it fell over. When it fell, the floor gave into it's weight. That caused the cave to destabilize, starting a cave in. I soon felt the loss of gravity as I fell through the floor. The last thing I saw was the roof of the cave falling and everyone grabbing one another then the rubble blocked my vision.

* * *

"Is everyone alright?" Raine asked as she assessed the damage to the cave and the group members.

"We're fine Professor." Lloyd said as he moved some rubble away from him. Genis was standing behind him slightly shaken. Thirteen appeared from around the corner with Eir and Kratos. Thirteen had protected Eir by grabbing her and pulling her aside. Raine looked behind them only seeing that the entrance to the cave was blocked in by rubble.

"Where's Max" Eir asked as she looked around in panic.

"And where's Colette?" Lloyd asked as well.

"They might have gotten separated by the cave in." Kratos said as he eyed the rubble. He could probably single-handedly remove the rubble. But it would ruin his cover of being a mercenary. "Hopefully they ended up together and we could meet them later. If they were lucky."

"Don't talk like that!" Lloyd shouted at him. "They cant be dead!"

"Lloyd calm down. It's just a worse case scenario. For all we know they could have fallen straight to the altar." Little did Raine know how mostly right she was.

* * *

I awoke with a heavy feeling on my chest and prepared for the worst. What I didn't expect to find was Colette knocked out on top of me. There was a sharp pain in my back and I noticed I had landed on Talim. Grunting in pain I gently moved Colette off of me and into a more comfortable position. While unwedging Talim from my spine. After sitting up in a better position I gazed around the room. I realized that I was resting against debris from the cave in and that we were in a different hallway. At the end of the hall there was an ominous blue glow. I heard Colette groan as she woke up.

"Where are we?" She asked as she rubbed her head.

"I'm not sure." I responded numbly trying to think of a way out of here. 'Talim you awake?' I tried to sense her but for some reason was unable to.'How dose a sword get knocked out?'

"I think we should go that way." Colette said as she pointed to the glowing end of the hall way.

"I think that's the only way we could go." I pointed out.

"I know that's why I suggested it." I just shrugged and followed after her. We traveled for a bit and found a ornately decorated room.

"Hey look over there!" Colette said as she raced ahead following a glowing blue light. I ran to try and catch up with her but she was faster. I then saw what she going to. It was a small alter with a blue crystalline flower sitting on a pedestal. I instantly recognized it as one of the centurion cores. Then I realized that she was going to go touch it. At first I want worried too much since she had grabbed one later in the future with no ill effects. But that was when she finished transforming. Right now her body was easily influenced by foreign mana due to the crystal!

"Colette No!" I shouted but it was too late. She had grabbed the centurion core. When she had it firmly in her hands a shock-wave of mana erupted from her body and threw me back. I had somehow grabbed one of the outcroppings of the cave wall and braced my self. Until the mana emission subsides all I could do is stare in horror as blue mana was being ejected from Colette's body.

* * *

General Info: Monster Farm (Jun and her monsters)

At the heart of Jun's residence Ignius' core hums quietly as several fire type monsters slept around it. The dark runes on its surface symbolize the corruption of and binding to Max. The room was covered in flame resistant ceramic. In an adjoining room Glacius' core did the same thing with the ice type monsters. For some reason Jun likes to keep fire and ice elemental monsters in her house and the rest outside in the barns. She told me once that is was because of the fire and ice monsters that it was easier to regulate the air temperature within the house. Across the yard the sight of monsters fighting could clearly be seen. There was a mob of all types of monsters there was at least three of each element. They all were focused on one target who stood in the middle of the mob. One monster lost it's patience and lunged at the person, who in turn dodged and landed a disabling blow to it. As it fell a smirk could be seen on the person's face as other monsters attacked. Out of the mob a large Fenrir just trotted around moving the disabled ones out of the field of battle.

"Come on you can do better that that!" the person said as she dodged more monsters. One of the house guards approached the battle trying to get the person's attention. He was stopped in his tracks by the Fenrir blocking his path. He was about to say something when a large unconscious dragon fell right behind it. If the creature didn't stop him he would have been crushed. He let out a sigh.

"Thanks Fushun." He said as he tossed some meat into her mouth. "Do you think you could get her for me?" the creature just let out a snort of amusement just before she rushed into the mob. She jumped off of several other monsters, dodging attacks and falling monsters. She soon spotted her target and blindsided her and grabbed the back of the person's shirt in her jaws. With her target in captured she jumped onto other monsters using them as stepping-stones to get back to the guard. Fushun landed in front of the guard with holding Jun in her jaws. Jun was hanging like a pup being held by its mother's jaws.

"Hello" Jun said while still hanging off of Fushun.

"Playing with your monsters again Jun?" the guard said with a chuckle.

"I'm training them." Jun said with a huff and crossing her arms.

"Here's a request from Max" he said as he handed her a sheet of paper. "He wants to know how the pups are."

"Oh. Okay. I'll send him the information soon." she quickly scanned the paper and patted Fushun and pointed to the random fighting monsters. "Back to the battle!" Fushun seemed to roll her eyes as she threw Jun into the middle of the mob.

"She reminds me of her father." A voice came from behind the guard startling him into a defensive position. He turn and found Max watching with amusement on his face with a small amount of melancholy.

"You knew her father, Sir?" the guard relaxed a bit when he noticed it was me.

"I did at one point in my life."

"Are you going to tell her?"

"One day I will. But not today." I grabbed the guard and pulled him back a few paces just before a large monster fell on the spot we were standing. I felt the presence of a monster behind me and I turned to face it. There was Fushun towering over me easily eight to nine feet tall. Before I could react her tongue came and licked my face knocking me over. "It's nice to see you to girl." I said as I petted the creature's head. I got up and turned to a random tree. "So how long have you been watching her?" I said as the tree shook.

"Of course you knew I was here." A voice from the tree said. A moment later Ven jumped out of the tree and landed next to me. "You know she also knew you were watching her." I motioned to the large mob of monsters.

"Oh" I took a step to the side as a large monster landed on Ven.

"You know I believe she threw that at you..." I said to the crushed Ven while teleporting away a grin etched on my face.

* * *

Max & Mathew: (Roars at each other with swords drawn as they charge at each other. Mike watches from the sidelines with a box of popcorn.)

Jun: What are they up to? (she asked as she snuck up on mike)

Mike: They're just working out their frustration.

Jun: From? (snatches the popcorn from Mike)

Mike: Hey! They're trying to figure out which way the story will go now.

Jun: Well good luck with that. This story has a life of its own almost and seems hard to control/write about. All you can do is change a small thing and hope for the best.

Mike: (watches the fight) That's gona hurt in the morning.

Max: one last thing if things seem a little rushed and not at the usually quality. Its because I don't have much time to edit it and I'm sleepy.

Jun: oh well Until next time readers. Ciao


	16. End and restart

Max: Bad news guys. Last chapter.

Mathew, Mike: WHAT!

Max: Yea I gave it a lot of thought and I'm going to restart this story, but split it into two stories. One about how my oc falls, and the other on how he falls. (lets see you try to make sense of that)

Mike: so what's happening this chapter.

Max: Well I'm going compress most of my ideas for this story into this chapter. Try not to get confused. A lot of revelations. Crammed together... it's most likely that I might miss some loos ends. Pleas let me know.

(The parts in Parentheses are incomplete scenes)

(this is incomplete and unedited)

* * *

The entire cave system was shaking as Lloyd, Raine, Genis, Kratos, Eir, and Thirteen tried to go deeper into the seal of water.

"What's going on?" Lloyd asked as he tried to stabilize himself against the wall.

'Why do I sense her mana?' Kratos thought to himself as he narrowed his eyes looking deeper into the cave structure.

"The mana is shifting!" Genis said as he held onto his sister. Eir was also holding onto Raine as Thirteen was holding onto a stalagmite.

"Did we set off a trap?" Thirteen asked as he looked around trying to see where the mana was coming from.

"No. it's something else." Kratos said as he looked down the tunnel.

"What is it?" Raine shouted over the rumbling of the cave.

"Something that should have not been disturbed." After Kratos said that the shaking stopped. Before anyone moved Lloyd had ran off. He blindly ran down the tunnels following his gut. He ran until he found a chamber with Max holding a sword pointed at Colette.

* * *

The amount of mana erupting from Colette's body was surprising. I was starting to loose my grip on the cave wall. 'I need something that will deflect or absorb the mana!'I thought to my self.

_'Use the devil's arms!' _I thought I heard Talim suggest. I opened my eyes wide in realization an called up the niblim. I could feel a force coming from it trying to consume my energy and gain control. I realized that since it was trying to absorb my mana I could use my self as a conduit for the extra mana in the air. I started to struggle against the mana currents and let my body absorb as much as it could. At this point adrenalin was coursing through my veins and I wasn't thinking of the consequence of what the mana was doing to me as it forced its way through my body. I only had one tought in my mind, get Colette away from aqua's core.

I soon was able to remove most of the centurion's mana from Colette. I let out a sigh of relief and soon was tasting the dirt floor. I looked up and saw Lloyd holding Colette with an furious glare that I didn't know he had. I barely noticed that he had punched me. The pounding feeling on my face give it away. But I did notice the large drain of energy when I dismissed the niblim.

"What did you do to her?" he said in an unusually cold voice. I was tired and just had a massive amount of mana course through my body. I was a little irritated. I didn't even notice the rest of the group arrive to see what was happening.

"I saved her." I said equally cold and agitated. "She came in contact with something she shouldn't have. If I hadn't drained the extra mana from her body I don't know what would have happened. I'm tired and badly wounded, if you couldn't tell. I'm going to the ship to rest. If you need me you know where to find me." 'not likely will need me anyways' I quickly made my way out of the cave ignoring their calls.

I never thought of the effect that the core would have on Colette's body. As we left we didn't notice that the water monsters seemed to be drawn to her. I also hadn't realized that the shaking had destabilized parts of the cavern. I only learned of it when it was too late. I had gotten back to the ship.

(friendship with Lloyd starts to deteriorate)

(Genis died from a cave in, Lloyd and Colette take it hard but Raine is destroyed by that. she isn't her self anymore as she will randomly stare off into the distance lost in her memories)

back at the site of the cavern in an elder Max appears from a portal "Damn it i'm too late." he begins digging through the rubble to see if he can find the body when he finds it another portal opens and several angels step out. He removes genis' exsphere and enters the portal leaving an order behind "Bring his body to the Third and see if she could do something about it." they follow right after with Genis' corpse.

* * *

As I sat in the control room of the ship, I contemplated my next move. I was tired. Tired of this journey. Tired of keeping what a knew a secret. And just plain tired. The sad part was it was just beginning. I wasn't prepared for anything of this magnitude. That's when I decided "To hell with this journey." I thought about it for a while. 'Maybe I should find a nice place to settle down again. This journey has brought up too many painful memories.' I looked over at Kratos with envy. 'He has a second chance with his family and he takes the opportunity for granted. But not if I have anything to say about it.' Then I decided. 'I'm going to throw a wrench in the works. I'll stand back and watch the fire works.' I went below deck to where the group was waiting and found my target.

"Hey Kratos can I talk with you for a moment." he nodded and followed me into the captain's quarters. When the door shut I sat silently thinking of what to say.

"I envy you Kratos." I started. I wasn't looking at him but staring at the wall. I felt his gaze upon me as I continued. "You have a second chance at having a family." He just stood there. "Did you know that your son still wants you to be in his life. Even if its been over a decade since you last saw him."

"What are you talking about?" he asked. I knew he was faking his confusion. I saw, that if I didn't already know, that there were no tells in his body language that told me that he knew what I was talking about.

"Your wife is still alive." I saw him freeze. "Well I wouldn't call that sate alive. She just needs a body." I knew I had confused him now but I continued. "She's been watching and waiting." I stood and looked him right in his eyes. "Lets make a deal. I can resurrect your wife for a price."

"If I believe you. What is the price." He didn't hesitate. "I need you to secure an new body. Eather artificial or a fresh cadaver." He nodded a moment before Talim appeared behind him. In a instant she slammed a tightly compacted ball of mana into his lower back. After a brief shout of pain he passed out. Talim stood up holding a rune covered sphere made of dark blue mana.

"And Origin's seal." I said chuckling while watching the man on the floor. A moment later a groan came from him letting me know that he survived the mana exchange.

"_He won't remember me taking the seal. All he will remember is you telling him the first part of the price."_ Talim whispered to me. I nodded and called for a guard. A moment later we were dragging Kratos back to the room.

"Lloyd!" I said as I entered the room.

"What is it." he said his depression evident in his voice. He soon saw me and a guard carrying Kratos into the room. Worry instantly washed over his features at the thought of loosing someone else.

"He just collapsed when we were talking." I said as Lloyd ran over. I told the group that I was just chatting when he collapsed. Raine did a quick check on him but from what I saw she looked... dead. The fire in her eyes was extinguished with Genis' death. Not even her hydrophobia had affected her.

* * *

(back at the ranch things are not going well as there is a revolt at my leadership. When I arrive I break my way through the fighting and get to the source. After a small fight I ended up with a half elf and a human. They were the cause of the revolt and so I made an example of them. By throwing them head first into the exsphere extraction machine. After that people knew that I was serious in keeping the peace. Now they would act all buddy buddy when ever I was around. That was all I needed. After awhile they would forget that they were just acting and hopefully they would stop hold a grudge against one another because of their race. That and more subtle mind control helps.)

* * *

After the seal of wind things started to blur. I don't know if it was that mana I had absorbed or the centurion cores starting to affect me. I barely remember leaving, I just awoke in the middle of the control room and felt a strange itch on my hand. I go to scratch it but my fingers bump into something else. Confused and curious I look down to see what was on my hand.

"When did I attach this exsphere?" I touched it. I shouldn't have as I realized too late. I felt a powerful surge of power surge through my body. I went rigid and felt a sense of vertigo as I blacked out.

* * *

"...t ...ing..." I heard a muffeled voice say as I felt my conciousness returning.

"He's coming to. Stand back we don't know if it really worked."

"What really worked?" I asked as the haze in my vision cleared up. I saw a group of people standing before me in a defensive stance. I noticed right away that it was Lloyd, Kratos, Sheena, Presea, and Zellos standing in the front lines while Raine, Colette, Thirteen, and Eir were in the back. There were more people I didn't recognize scattered around the room. Several people were injured, some more grave then others. I sat there confused until I saw red. Blinking and wincing I rubbed the blood out of my eyes.

"W-What's going on?" there was a lot of blood but I didn't feel a wound at all. I started to panic trying to make sense of what was in front of me. A multitude of questions started racing through my mind. I quickly came to a conclusion that we were fighting!

"NO! I earned this body! I will not give it up this easily!" I suddenly shouted for some reason. Something was fighting me internally. My body was trying to move on its own but I was fighting it. I soon noticed that my hands were trying to remove the keycrest on my hand. I knew that it was the only thing that was giving me some control over my body. What ever was controlling me didn't expect me to go with the motion of grabbing the keycrest and I seized control.

"Get. Out. Of. My. HEAD!" I shouted as I tore the keycrest off my hand.

Everyone tensed as they had seen me take what ever was on my hand off. Fearing the worst they got ready for battle. With a sigh Max let go of the keycrest as it bounced onto the floor. When it landed everyone was waiting for the next move. They watched max collapse onto the floor and tensed. There was a loud sigh as Max spoke.

"The only safe way to remove an exsphere from the host body is to use a keycrest." When he had said this they all looked at the keycrest that was on the floor and saw that the exsphere was there as well.

(a darker portion of Max's subconscious took control of Max's body when he was sealed away by the exsphere.) (unknown to anyone even myself the darker parts of my mind had started to corrupt my thoughts. It was aided by the devil's arms and centurion cores in my possession) (to try and control the darker side of my mind I separated it and gave it a body to inhabit. I named him Mathew.)(a memory while max was possesed was when he was fighting at the tower of salvation against Mithos: he uses origin's mana seal as a shield and when it is destroyed the eternal sword crashes into the ground.)

* * *

(scene after tower of salvation before lloyd finds out that kratos is his father)

"Who are you?" Lloyd asked his captor. In his hazy state Lloyd stared at her for a moment "Sheena?"

She looked at him with a sad smile and spoke.

"I have a few names,but that is not one of them. Right now my name is Jun, Jun Hesperos. Lady of the beasts, Twelve, and in a previous time an' life I would be Naomi. Naomi Fujibayashi-Aurion. And you Lloyd Au-Irving are my prisoner."

"Aurion! Are you related to Kratos?" Lloyd's eyes were wide looking at his captor and pulling out the similarities between the two.

"You could say that." Jun said as Lloyd felt something hit the back of his head and the world faded. "Sorry but I need to get you to safety. I hope you can forgive me one day, Dad. Because not everyone can be saved."

* * *

(scene from tower of mana after pact but the seed dosent go crazy.)

A bright flash of light and a shower of sparks as a chakram deflected off its duplicate. Colette's only way out of the tower was now blocked by a tall blond man.

"Don't think you'll get past." Ven said as he stood in front of Colette.

(Gabriel and Colette)

((in a future confrontation)Colette skillfully snatched the enemy's chakram out of the air and held it. It felt familiar. She looked at it and was surprised when she recognized it. "Where did you get this?" She said in a firm voice. Gabriel let out a growl and spoke. "Those are important to me." He said slowly reigning in his anger. "Those belonged to my mother." Colette was shocked as she processed what he said. She looked at him with wide eyes as several emotions flashed through them. "But these were mine." she said. )

(for later chapters (after the water seal and we pass through the mountains to Asguard I say that I will go on ahead and meet them in luin. Using the excuse that I am searching for more clues on the seals.) dark personification(Genis' soul is stuck in the exsphere an I attach it and end up communicating with him through Talim. ) don't ask)

(back in the future the elder max was staring at the many suspension tubes that held several children. There were several metal plates that identified each child bolted under each container. "Unfortunatly some of the children had escaped capture." one of his subordinates said. Max ignored them. "Did you hack the desian database back in the past." Max asked his sub. "Yes." "Their minds have been wiped and equipped with the modified exspheres?" "Just like you asked. Everything else is all set." "Good" Max came to the last container holding a silver-haired child. The metal plate on the tank just had a number "13" "his body was fixed but his mind was badly damaged. It will take time for his memory to return." a woman said as she entered the room "Send him back as well. But put him in one by Palmacosta." "As you wish." She said.)

* * *

(ending)

I hacked up a large amount of blood as I collapsed onto the ground. Lloyd and his companions stood next to me his bloodied blade in hand. I soon felt myself lifted up and held face to face with lloyd.

"Why?" was all he said. His eyes told me the rest of his questions. Why did I do it? Why did I destroy his family? Why did I twist this world into what it is? If I had told him to truth he would reject it. So I lied.

"For fun" I wheezed out.

(soul gets ripped out of body by origin)

"You may have bested me but it was something I was expecting." My asterial form said in the grip of Origin. Everyone tensed preparing for a surprise attack or the self destruct to activate, but I had other plans then killing them. "Ha Ha Ha. You should prepare. I have a successor somewhere out there preparing their next move. My roll has ended in this struggle for the planet. Now it's your turn." I just laughed as origin took me away. As everything faded I saw the look of worry on their faces. But I had other thoughts. I wonder how Eir and her daughter would be. I wonder what would happen to all those that I have cared for and trained. All I had left, was the hope and a belief that I left them strong enough to stand on their own two feet. I soon saw a bright light and awaited what origin had decided.

* * *

(prolog)

(individual family moments)

* * *

Mike: I like chatting with people in p.m. They were talking about you.

Max: Really? What did they say?

Mathew: Put down that gun.

Max: Did you?

Mathew: Of course not.


End file.
